The Unexpected
by Baphiwens
Summary: Unable to manage even the simplest spells, an outcast Harry must overcome the unexpected twists of a detention gone wrong, and the worst massacre in Wizarding Britain's history. Eventual Powerful!Harry, HP/DG
1. Potions

A/N: Here it is! I still maintain that I will continue my previous story at some point in time. Give the story a chance, Harry will be portrayed as 'weak' in a sense of magical talent at the beginning of the story but believe me, he will grow. There will be the one and only lemon this story will have near the end of the chapter.

* * *

At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter was someone to be laughed at. His peers would look down on him or laugh whenever he would pass. The problem wasn't his personality, in fact, he would always try and be nice to them which was mistaken as a weakness half the time. No, it wasn't something he had done. He did nothing to deserve the life he had; it was something he was born with, or in this case, without - his magical ability.

He didn't know why it was like this, he came from a family line of powerful witches and wizards, but he was the exception. At certain points he would think he was sick, giving himself false hope that maybe he had some sort of a disease that hindered his magical growth and magical core and could be cured. All the tests he would take would show otherwise; he was perfectly healthy! Well, as healthy as an emotionally abused, food deprived child could be.

His disadvantage affected his school work, as he failed to cast semi-powerful too powerful spells, as they would deplete his energy. He was by no means a squib, even though the population insisted on calling him that. Subjects such as Charms, Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts were his least favorite subjects, they would emphasize the fact that he was weak and things only got harder as the years progressed.

He was not completely untalented, however, he was an excellent dueler, and arguably the best in the school even though physical skill could only go so far. He would mostly side-step or roll out of the way of spells during a duel but most of his attempts of aggression would be in vain if his opponent had a shield up because his spell's would do little do damage it and he could not take spell's with his shield because it would shatter on contact. He had to be smart when he dueled using the few spells he could without exhausting himself too much.

He even had rare abilities. He was a Parselmouth to be exact. He discovered this during the second year when Malfoy summoned a snake during their duel. He had not known about the ability before because he did not know it had even existed - who would want to try and talk to snakes? He was happy because of his new found ability but his Gryffindor housemates started avoiding him as the skill was considered 'dark'. Once people were starting to get petrified and word of the Chamber of Secrets being opened had spread, he was believed to be the heir of Slytherin and that he had opened the chamber.

The purebloods in Slytherin started being nice to Harry, offering to carry his books to the next class and trying to start a conversation with him but when they realized that blood purity played no part in the petrification, they went back to sneering at him.

He had noticed that Ron's little sister Ginny Weasley was acting strangely one night, and wearing his invisibility cloak, he decided to follow her. She led him to a girl's bathroom on the second floor, and was surprised to find that she was the one who was opening the chamber of secrets. He decided to let her be that night but when she wasn't seen the next day, he went down to the chamber himself and found her lying on the floor unconscious.

He went out at night to try and save her only to be confronted by Tom Riddle, who had used a diary to possess Ginny and use her soul to bring himself back. Tom explained his heritage to Harry and told him who he really was and that he was a half blood. He had to fight a basilisk and he successfully killed it using Gryffindor's sword. He then used the sword to stab the diary, destroying the diary and Tom. He carried Ginny's body out of the chambers, leaving her in the corridor's to be found by another student. Ginny recalled nothing of the incident and people wondered why the petrifications suddenly stopped.

He learned accidentally during third year that he had an ability known as Mage sight, when while in Divination, he passed out and knocked his head on the table. When he awoke, he was able to see the magical auras of other people. When he noticed that they had different shades of certain colours, he researched why and found that the lighter the aura was, the more powerful the wizard or witch was. He had no idea why he had the ability because only the most powerful wizards had it in the past.

He was deeply affected by the Dementors that were looking for Sirius Black that year. He sat with the new professor in a compartment on the way back to Hogwarts, when the Dementors stopped the train, one came directly to him and he would have been kissed, had the Professor not saved him with a spell that Harry did not know of.

He later learned the professor was Remus Lupin. After a quidditch accident, Harry asked him to teach the spell to him but was barely able to produce a wisp without fainting. They left it at that as it was clear Harry was unable to do it and remain conscious. He then got the Marauders Map from the Weasley twins who felt sympathy for him when everybody went to Hogsmeade and he was staying behind.

When it was almost dark, he saw Peter Pettigrew, who everyone believed was dead, in the presence of Professor Lupin. Curious, he decided to investigate. He couldn't see Pettigrew with Lupin but the map showed that they were together, so he followed the professor as he went to the old shack. He was shocked to see him conversing with Sirius Black but he was even more surprised to find that Sirius was his godfather and that he had been locked up in Azkaban for a crime he did not commit. He was happy that he could leave the Dursleys and that he had someone to call family.

As it got dark, Dementors surrounded the shack and Remus's patronus could not drive away so many. Harry was unsure of what took over him but all he could think about was protecting the only family he had left. He pulled out his wand and after thinking of leaving the Dursleys to live with his godfather, was able to produce a patronus in the form of a stag that drove away about a hundred Dementors. A normal corporeal patronus could drive away at most twenty Dementors but he had been able to drive away a hundred and he had no magical exhaustion of any sort. However, his wand split unable to handle the power of the spell and he was unable to produce it afterwards. Pettigrew had escaped into the darkness, only Harry ever knowing that Pettigrew was even there.

He got a new and improved wand which had a Phoenix-feather core and he liked more than the Unicorn-tail core he had last time.

He had discovered no new abilities after that and the highlight, for lack of a better word, of his fourth year was being entered into the Triwizard tournament, the death of Cedric and resurrection of Voldemort. He had narrowly escaped with his life from the graveyard, while Voldemort boasted about how Harry wasn't even worth his time. No one believed him however, thinking him crazy and saying, "How could a wizard, with no talent whatsoever, escape from the most feared and powerful dark lord known to wizardkind, with his life?"

Harry would have been sent to Azkaban for Cedric's death if not for Dumbledore's intervention.

During the summer before this year started, he and his cousin were attacked by two Dementors, only then was he able to produce Prongs again to save his and his cousin's life. He was almost expelled and his wand taken from him, but Dumbledore saved him, again. He was taken from the Dursleys that day and moved to 12 Grimmauld Place where he was told of an order called 'The Order of the Phoenix' which Dumbledore had formed in the previous war to fight of Voldemort and his death eaters.

Seeing Sirius again also greatly improved his summer but he kept to himself most of the time there. With Dumbledore's help, he won the trial concerning him using magic outside of Hogwarts in the presence of a muggle and was not expelled.

He sometimes wondered how someone with the power he had even survived the killing curse as an infant but he figured it was something his parents did.

He currently sat alone in a compartment, reflecting on the last four years of school waiting for the train to leave. He didn't really have any friends, though he would sometimes talk to Neville who had somewhat similar magical problems he did but Neville would usually sit with the other Gryffindors where Harry was an outcast. He didn't mind though, it gave him plenty of time to think, which he did quite often. He closed his eyes trying to sleep when the train blew the horn to signal departure. He heard people enter the compartment but decided to pay them no attention and soon drifted off into dreamland.

He woke up when the train was two hours away from Hogwarts. He had no idea why he slept so long because he hadn't felt all that tired when before he slept but the time spent asleep wasn't unwelcome. He rubbed his eyes to try and clear the sleep from them, when he looked around he saw three Slytherins looking intently at him, though he couldn't read their expression.

"Hello," he greeted but they said nothing and just kept looking at him, there were two girls and a boy. One of the girls had dark hair and brown eyes, he felt she was more curious than anything else. The other girl had blonde hair and blue eyes, he remembered her as she was named by the boys as "the school's most desirable witch," and the boy was dark skinned, black hair and brown eyes.

He shrugged, nonplussed by their presence, and laid his head on the window. He looked out to at the countryside flying by as the train moved. He could still feel them looking at him, but they stopped not long after and started talking among themselves.

When it was thirty minutes before they arrived at Hogwarts he left the compartment to go change and put on his robes. Upon arrival it was the same as every year, the only difference was the voice was calling the first years was not Hagrid's, and he wondered what happened to Hagrid. Hagrid was one of the few people he talked to often but it seemed he had lost that privilege this year.

He went on to find a carriage, and as he approached one, he saw a skeletal winged, horse like creature harnessed in front of the carriage. He had never seen them before, but was certain they were never there before, 'You've finally lost it Potter,' he thought, tilting his head in confusion.

"You're not going crazy. I see them too," his head snapped up to the carriage to see a blonde Ravenclaw girl, reading a magazine... upside down.

"Umm... What are they?" he turned back to the animals.

"Thestrals, you can only see them once you've seen death," she told Harry, her voice was airy, as if she didn't have a care in the world.

The memory of Cedric's death came into mind. His mood turned bitter, but he got onto the carriage with the girl. Their ride to Hogwarts was silent, and he couldn't remember the name of the girl but he knew they were in the same year and that she was considered "mental," by the school population because she often claimed to see things no one else could. He decided not to call her crazy as she may be actually seeing those things as he just got proof first hand with the Thestrals that she may actually be seeing those things. When they arrived at Hogwarts and Harry was almost at the Great Hall when Neville appeared next to him.

"Hey mate, where were you?" Neville turned to him.

"In a compartment towards the back of the train," Harry answered his acquaintance.

"Oh... Alone?"

"Well, no, there were three Slytherins there but we didn't talk," he told Neville, who stayed quiet after that, they entered the great hall and Harry turned to Neville "Want to sit with me?"

"Sure," Neville said with a shrug, they sat in the middle of Gryffindor and watched the hall fill up and everyone took their seats. Harry noticed a woman who was at his trial sitting at the head table. To his understanding, she was the Senior Undersecretary to the Ministry of Magic, and it didn't make sense as to why she would be here.

The sorting began and Slytherin got the most of the first-years this year, 'I wonder why,' Harry thought sarcastically. He had developed a dislike for the house, he knew not everyone was the same there but they had been the source of his torment here. The other houses were not as direct as the Slytherins were as they never really did anything except shake their heads at him; the Slytherins openly laughed and made fun of his magical ability.

The feast began and Harry ate his food without talking to Neville who followed Harry's lead. When they were done Dumbledore began his speech.

"Well, now that we are all digesting another magnificent feast, I beg a few moments of your attention for the usual start-of-term notices," said Dumbledore. "First-years ought to know that the Forest in the grounds is out-of-bounds to students - and a few of our older students ought to know by now, too."

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me, for what he tells me is the four-hundred-and-sixty-second time, to remind you all that magic is not permitted in corridors between classes, nor are a number of other things, all of which can be checked on the extensive list now fastened to Mr. Filch's office door."

"We have had two changes in staffing this year. We are very pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank, who will be taking Care of Magical Creatures lessons," There was a slightly enthusiastic applause to this pronouncement, "we are also delighted to introduce Professor Umbridge to the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

There was a round of polite but fairly lethargic applause, during which Harry exchanged a look with Neville.

Dumbledore continued, "Tryouts for the house Quidditch teams will take place on the... "

He broke off, looking inquiringly at Professor Umbridge. As she was not much taller standing than sitting, there was a moment when nobody understood why Dumbledore had stopped talking, but then Professor Umbridge cleared her throat, "Hem, hem," and it became clear that she had got to her feet and was intending to make a speech.

Dumbledore only looked taken aback for a moment, then he sat down smartly and looked alertly at Professor Umbridge but didn't say anything. Other members of staff were not as adept at hiding their surprise. Professor Sprout's eyebrows had disappeared into her flyaway hair and Professor McGonagall's mouth was thin. To Harry's own knowledge, no new teacher had ever interrupted Dumbledore before, and the general demeanor of the rest of the students showed they had the same thought that this woman obviously did not know how things were done at Hogwarts.

"Thank you, Headmaster," Professor Umbridge simpered, "for those kind words of welcome."

Her voice was high-pitched, breathy and little-girlish and, it made Harry feel very uncomfortable and he felt a powerful rush of dislike that he could not explain. She gave another little throat-clearing cough ("hem, hem") and continued.

"Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say!" She smiled, revealing very pointed teeth. "And to see such happy little faces looking up at me."

Harry glanced around and none of the faces he could see looked happy. On the contrary, they all looked rather taken-aback at being addressed as though they were five years old. All what she seemed to be talking about was a load of rubbish on how the Ministry of Magic wanted to help the students and the changes that will be for the 'better'? He scanned each of the tables to see who was listening but only teachers and a housemate he knew as Hermione were. Cho Chang and her friend Lisa Turpin at the Ravenclaw table had started mumbling to each other, and somehow Fred as well as George had fallen asleep on each other. This showed that no one had that much more respect for her than Harry did, as she had tried to get him expelled and his wand destroyed. After what seemed to be a long winded lecture, she stopped talking and took her seat again. As soon as the interruption ended and Dumbledore began to continue his opening announcements everyone started to listen again.

Harry turned to Neville "What was that about?"

"The ministry is trying to interfere with Hogwarts," Neville said grimly.

Harry nodded and turned to look at the woman with narrowed eyebrows, who stared back at him.

Theywere soon excused to their dorms and Harry wasted no time falling asleep. He was tired for some reason. He didn't know why, but he felt that he had a hard year ahead of him, and how right he was.

* * *

"Harry mate, wake up we're going to be late for Potions." Neville nudged Harry to wake him up, because Harry had overslept. "Here's your class schedule."

"Head on without me. I'm going to be late anyway," Harry said to Neville dejectedly as he made his way to the bathroom to take a quick shower.

"Are you sure?" Neville asked.

"Yeah, thanks for waking me." Harry heard Neville leave the dorm. He knew Snape would give him a whole year's worth of detention for being late the first day. He never truly understood why the professor hated him so much. He could not feel anything but intense hatred from him whenever Snape looked at Harry, which angered Harry more as he had never done anything to be hated by him.

He finished taking a shower and then quickly put on his robes. He felt his stomach grumble and cursed to himself. He ran out of the common room and took several shortcuts he knew to make it to the potions classroom. When he made it to the door, he stopped to compose himself, after taking a few deep breaths, he opened the door.

Snape turned to the door, noticing Harry's presence "Potter," he spat, "You're late, twenty points from Gryffindor and a detention with me this Friday," he told him, not even giving him time to explain.

Harry sighed and shook his head. He went and took a seat next to Ron, who gave him a sympathetic look.

Today they were brewing an Advanced Sleeping potion, and Harry was fairly good at Potions but Snape's attitude towards him dampened down his potential at the subject, He would usually get Poor for his potions but if Snape was having a good day, he would get Acceptable.

Today was no different. He finished right after Padma Patil, who finished first in the class. Their potions looked exactly the same. While she got an Outstanding, Harry only got an Acceptable. Harry would have complained to him but he knew that would only make matters worse. Whatever the Professor hated him for it was deep and he would let him sort out his issues on his own.

The next class was charms with the Hufflepuffs. Harry liked the professor of the class but the class itself was draining for him. Flitwick had been trying to help him with his magic, even asking him to try certain charms during class much to Harry's humiliation. He hoped today was going to be an easy lesson but it seemed today was not going to be his day. When everyone was ready Flitwick began his lesson.

"Today we'll be trying to perfect a charm with the incantation 'Aresto Momentum'. Its purpose is to decrease the momentum of any moving object and if you look above you, you will see you each have the snitch but they have been charmed to weigh more than the average. They will repeatedly fall and rise until you manage to slow down their Velocity with the spell. Now remember, the incantation is 'Aresto Momentum."

As the professor finished his lecture, the snitches above everyone started falling and ascending. Harry sighed in frustration, another hard year. The only reason he actually passed the class was because of his knowledge on the theory of the spells, as he couldn't do so well with the practical. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the moving snitch, he took a deep breath before "Aresto Momentum!" and as expected he felt the magical pull and the need to pass out. The snitch did slow down for a moment, moving at a slower rate but quickly regained its original pace.

Harry hit his head on his desk. He felt like he was going to pass out but he pulled out a vial of the Energy Potions that Dumbledore gave him and drank it. He felt his energy return to him but refrained from attempting to do the spell again.

Flitwick noticed this and frowned. No one had any idea on what was wrong with Harry. James and Lily were both powerful, but Harry did not seem to have inherited any of their skills. What was more worrying was that he would easily get tired when attempting even simple spells.

Harry left the classroom with an annoyed frown, the Puff's were mocking him while they thought he couldn't hear and he was frustrated with himself but he thought, 'It's not my fault.'

The Next class was Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Slytherins. He sat next to Neville this time. The class was making a ruckus. Someone had conjured a paper bird and it was flying around the class. It was suddenly burned into ashes when the door to the classroom swung open.

"Good morning, children," a sickly sweet voice said from behind the class and everyone turned to see Professor Umbridge, with her wand in hand.

She then pointed her wand to the small board in front of the class and started writing on it as she approached it. "Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations, more commonly known as OWLs." She had reached the front of the class at this point and she turned to them before she continued. "Study hard and you will be rewarded, fail to do so and the punishments may be severe!" She looked like she was waiting for a reaction. When she got none, she used her wand to lift the books on the desk behind her and place each one in front of someone on their desks.

"The previous instruction on this subject has been disturbingly uneven, but you will be please to know from now on, you will be following a carefully structured, ministry approved course of Defensive Magic," she continued.

Harry looked at the book labelled 'Dark Arts Defense: Basics for beginners.' He opened it and frowned at it; it had nothing about using defensive spells. He saw Hermione's hand shoot up and he knew other students noticed too.

"Yes?" Professor Umbridge asked pointing towards Hermione.

"There's nothing in our course objectives about using defensive spells," she told Umbridge sounding disappointed.

"Using defensive spells?" she laughed a sickly laugh that made Harry want to cover his ears. "Why, I can't imagine why you would need to use defensive spells in my classroom."

"We're not going to use magic?" Ron blurted from behind Harry.

"You'll be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way," she replied tersely, eyes narrowing.

"What use is that if we're going to be attacked, it won't be risk free then," Harry frowned at the Defense professor.

She turned and moved away. "Students will raise their hands if they wish to speak in my class, Mr. Potter."

'Ron didn't raise his hand but you answered him,' Harry thought dryly.

She turned back to the class. "It is the view of the ministry, that a theoretical knowledge will be sufficient to get you through your examinations which after all is what school is all about."

"How is theory supposed to prepare us for what's out there," Harry was getting a bit frustrated now, raising his hand.

"There is nothing out there dear. What would you imagine would want to attack children, like yourself?" she questioned.

Harry narrowed his eyes at her and spoke in a stone cold voice. "Voldemort." It had the same effect it always did, gasps and involuntary flinches. Neville looked down to the table next to him and whispers broke out.

Umbridge's smile faltered for a second, then it returned. "Now let me make this clear." Her voice turned cold while her smile was plastered on her face. "You have been told that a certain dark wizard is at large once again. This is a lie." she turned to Harry when she said the last part, putting emphasis on the word lie.

"I suppose Cedric dropped dead then?" Every eye turned to Harry.

"Of course not! Where the prize money was a thousand Galleons, and the glory from being the winner of the Tri-Wizard tournament. I'm sure you-"

"Are you accusing me of killing Cedric for a thousand galleons!? Do you even know which family line I belong to?!" Harry was seething. He knew some blamed him for killing him, but for thousand Galleons?

"That is quite enough! Fifty points from Gryffindor, do not speak to me in such a tone!" Umbridge's voice held a little anger also.

Harry stared at her for a few seconds, seething in rage. Contemplating on what to do, he knew picking a fight with this woman would lead to more trouble he didn't want, and decided to turn back to the book and let Umbridge continue the lesson.

"Besides, squib, it's not like you can do the spells without fainting anyway," Malfoy mocked causing some of the Slytherins to laugh. Harry gripped his book tighter but said nothing. Umbridge smiled at this but didn't make any move to reprimand Malfoy for talking out of turn. Harry was starting to feel like this year would be the worst year he would ever have. He couldn't escape the physical and emotional torture he endured at the Dursleys or at school. Rage built up inside him, as two words flooded his mind, 'freak' and 'squib'.

The rest of the week passed slowly for him, with the same thing happening in the classes. He would do well in theory and fail practically. Umbridge kept on making it a point that Voldemort had not returned.

Soon enough Friday night came and it was time for his detention with Snape. He had plenty of detentions with Snape to know how this would go. He would clean up all the cauldrons used from the classes. He turned the corner of the corridor and saw the blonde girl from the train standing in front of the Potions class, with Snape talking to her. Snape noticed his presence and sneered.

"Potter, you're late for your detention. Ten points from Gryffindor. What are you standing around for? Enter the room," he drawled to Harry who quickly obliged and entered the potions classroom.

"Now, you and Greengrass will clean the cauldrons and pack away all the vials that already have potions in them, and do not drop any of them, Potter, the consequences would be severe." Snape gave a smug smile. "Do not use magic, I will return to check on you both shortly." With that, Snape turned and left the two students alone.

Harry turn to Greengrass and found her looking at him coldly, "Uh-what did you do to get detention?"

She stared at him for a few seconds longer, not saying anything, then turned around to grab a cloth to begin cleaning the cauldrons.

Harry groaned, "Is it a Slytherin thing to ignore people or something?"

She snorted, "No, we just choose to ignore those who we have no need to associate with."

Harry sighed and moved to grab a cloth to clean the cauldrons. They spent thirty minute's cleaning the cauldrons with Snape coming to check on them twice.

When they started packing the vials in a cupboard, Harry had long since stopped his attempts on conversation as she obviously did not want to speak to him. He was walking back towards where the potion vials were when he ran into the corner of a table and stumbled into her, causing her to drop the potion vials she was carrying, and fall to the ground underneath him.

"Potter! You idiot, what the hell were..." she stopped talking when she inhaled the aroma of all the potions that fell. There were different types of potions she was carrying before Harry fell into her, the smell of all the mixed potions caused her to feel a swirl of emotions she couldn't explain but there was at the top of all. Lust.

Harry, affected by the potions also, tried his best not to give into the emotions he was feeling, but all of his restraint was lost when he caught her eye while he was lying on her. He kissed her with a fiery passion and she responded with equal need.

He rolled onto his back and she followed suit, getting onto him with her legs around his waist. He trailed his kisses down her neck as she gave out moans of approval. She was in pure bliss; her nipples hardening. She wanted all of him and he wanted all of her.

Harry pulled off her robe and unknotted her tie and, still kissing her, he started to unbutton her shirt. She started to rub herself on him, causing him to groan softly. He finished unbuttoning her shirt, revealing a white bra. He tried to unclip it from behind but his inexperience was clear and she decided to do it for him. Soon he started caressing her breasts, hot and soft under his hands.

"Harry..." She moaned, she didn't want to stop, even though her brain was screaming for it. She found herself on the floor again and Harry stopped kissing her to unbuckle his pants and to remove his shirt.

He bent down to continue kissing her. Then he started to go down on her, moving from her lips to her neck then to her stomach. When his manhood then sprang loose, she eyed it with a mixture of nervousness and anticipation.

"Ready?" He was panting with need and positioning himself over her. She nodded, tears welling in her eyes, knowing what was happening, and knowing that a part of her wanted it.

Harry slowly started to push into her and she winced. He instantly went still, his heart pounding. Slowly, she adjusted herself and nodded to him again to continue. Pain was all she felt as he went into her and she dug her nails into his back. He started to move into her slowly, but his thrust speed started to increase as she began moving into him, the pain receding. He rolled himself onto his back again pulling her on top of him and continued to kiss her while still moving with her.

"Ahhh - Harry!" she moaned into the kiss as they both approached their climax.

They both reached their climax and Harry paused inside her and she let out a moan when her orgasm took over her and she fell onto his chest, his manhood still in her. Then they both snapped out of their potion induced trance.

His eyes went wide in recognition. He was petrified and he couldn't move.

She put her arms on his chest, lifting her torso, she stared at him wide-eyed, tears rolling down her cheeks. She quickly jumped off him, she tried to run to her clothes but her thighs hurt but when she did, she put on all her clothes and after wearing her robe she left the class stumbling awkwardly.

Harry sat up and put on his robe's as fast as he could. He knew Snape would be here soon and he did not want to have Snape find himself in this state. He cleaned up all the enduring proof of what happened, put away the remaining vials and left for the common room. When he entered, he went straight for the dorms and tried his best to sleep, he eventually fell asleep with a thought.

"What in Merlin's name did I do?"

* * *

A/N: I suck even more at writing lemons, but this will be the only one in this story as mentioned above.

I think you can all tell the consequence's to come.

B/N: It is my hope that the changes that the minor rewrite to this chapter helps with clarifying events and moving the story. It is also my hope that everyone enjoyed this story and know that there is much more to come. –Kamon


	2. Fallout

A/N: Another chapter, update's gonna be slow, only on weekends most of the time but maybe week-days on occasion. Exams gonna keep my writing time limited.

* * *

Daphne entered Slytherin common room, tears still rolling down her cheeks and walking awkwardly. The house noticed this and the younger years looked at her strangely but those in her year and older eyes widened with recognition. She made her way to her dorm room as fast as she could, ignoring the eyes, and attempting to be as dignified as she could. She entered the dorm and ran into the bathroom, undressed and got into the shower.

She replayed everything that just happened in her head, she had no control over her emotions. It was like her body moved on its own accord, she knew she was in control but she reacted to her overwhelming desires. Everything she felt was gone as soon as they had both reached their climax and so the potion fumed affections ended then and there.

'This is all that squibs fault,' she thought with hatred. She had developed her "Ice-queen" facade to keep any boy who would try and approach her, now she had given herself to one willingly to the fault of her desires. She hated and regretted what happened but she could only blame him. He was the one to make her drop the potions by tripping, starting all of this.

Her parents were not going to take this well, especially her father. She had grown up being taught how pureblood women are meant to act and her father had always told her that there would be a high chance that she would be put into a marriage contract for the benefit of the family. This, of course, required her to be a maiden, and now that she had gone and shagged with someone. That it was with a half-blood, and him being so magically weak made things worse.

The Greengrass head was not very... fond of the Potters. They broke an alliance that had been there for years to keep both houses pure. Then the Potters went and had a half-blood child born, and that did not sit well with her father at all. It didn't sit well with her grandfather either, who had decided he was too old to continue to run the family and so he handed over lordship of the house to her father.

They didn't even use a… Contraceptive charm. She almost screamed at the realization, the squib could have gotten her... No, it can't happen.

It won't.

Daphne shook her head and got out of the shower. She noticed her skirt was slightly damp so she used her a cleaning charm and started to dress after drying herself. She turned to the mirror and noticed her eyes were red and her cheeks were puffy. After applying a glamour charm and composing herself, she made her way to the door knowing full well of the questioning that was about to come.

She opened the door and saw Astoria, Tracey, Millicent and surprisingly Pansy with worried expressions. Daphne went and sat on her bed and they practically huddled on her.

"Daph, what happened, and why were you walking like that?" Astoria asked innocently.

"I don't think you would really want to know Astoria," Tracey answered for Daphne, to which she frowned at.

"Why wouldn't I? She's my sister," Astoria glared at Tracey

"It's-"

"Let's just listen to what Daphne has to say please," Millicent cut off Tracey's reply.

"What makes you think I have something to say?" Daphne tried to look stern but the hurt in her eyes was visible and they could all see it. They all stared at her and she stared back, they sat there in silence until Daphne relented, which did take some time.

Daphne sighed and fiddled with her fingers. "Fine, something did happen but I want you all to give me an oath to not tell any other soul about this."

They all nodded and pulled out their wands, giving their oaths.

Daphne began "You know I was at detention with Professor Snape," they nodded "I got there and he told me that I was going to serve it with another person, a boy."

Astoria didn't let her continue as she had put the dots together "WH-" she began but Pansy covered her mouth, holding her until she calmed down.

"Continue," Pansy told Daphne

So Daphne did. "We were supposed to clean the cauldrons and then pack all the vials with potions inside. The professor had left us alone because he had to go to a meeting," She took a deep-breath before continuing. "We finished cleaning the cauldrons and we were packing the vials. He then somehow tripped, and fell into me, making me drop the potions I was carrying," Daphne was angrier at this point. The bloody boy-who-lived was the cause of it all.

"The potions, they messed with both our brains, made us have these... feelings of desire and they caused us to not be able to think straight. We gave into the desires and we..." Daphne stopped. A few silent tears rolled down her face. She knew that she didn't need to continue because their faces showed a look of fear. Astoria and Tracey lunged at her, hugging her for what it was worth, muttering sympathetic apologies.

"Did you use any charms to stop from... You know?" Millicent asked hesitantly when Tracey and Astoria broke away from Daphne, pointing to her stomach.

Daphne shook her head. Pansy covered her mouth with her hands and the others followed her action, eyes wide.

"Mother isn't going to like this," Astoria shook her head.

"Who was it?" Pansy finally asked

Daphne sighed "Harry Potter."

* * *

 _Harry looked around his location. He gathered that he was near a manor, one he did not recognize. He wondered how he even got here. Last he knew he was trying to fall asleep but now he wasn't even at Hogwarts. He wasn't close enough to see the manor clearly, but he could see it was quite big, the biggest he has seen so far. He decided to walk towards it. There was nothing else but forestry as he walked towards it, no people, nothing._

 _As he got closer to it, he could feel the ground shaking a bit and noticed bright flashes, some of different_ colors _and sizes, souring to the sky from the ground coming from just outside the manor. He could see that the flashes were spells because he recognized some of them. He slowed down his pace once he got close to the flashes, using the trees as cover so to not be seen if there was a duel taking place, the ground shaking only grew more violent as he got closer, he got closer to the clearing of the manor where the duel was taking place, meaning his cover was running out. He hid behind the last tree before the clearing and peeked around the tree. His eyes went wide when he saw who the people were._

 _It was him, looking slightly older, maybe a year older. His hair still untamed, well-built and his green eyes glowing, scaring the younger him to a degree. His mouth went dry when he saw his older self's opponent._

 _Voldemort._

 _Harry cursed himself, what would make him do something as stupid as fighting Voldemort. He did not fear him, no but he understood that he honestly would stand no chance with the way his power was now, but he started to take more notice of the duel. Their spells were connected, something he had not seen before and a pure white spell was emitting from his wand and the killing curse green from Voldemort's, meeting dead_ center _._

 _Next to the_ dueling _pair were two animals, a stag which Harry had assumed was Prongs and a snake. The stag was made completely out of_ water _, some of it dripping onto the burnt grass. The snake was made only of a fire and he could feel the heat coming from it. The two were also in a battle, one trying to destroy the other, the stag trying to use_ it _antlers to impale the fire snake and the snake trying to bite at the stag._

 _Harry figured that he and Voldemort had conjured it but found it impossible, he could barely cast a summoning charm and even then he needed potions to recover from the energy used for the spell, it didn't make sense. He noticed that his older_ self didn't _even look that tired at maintaining the big creatures next to them and the duel he was currently in, he looked determined, like the battle was life or death._

 _"You're not going to take them Tom!" his older self-shouted to the dark lord_

 _Voldemort laughed maniacally, "On the contrary Harry, today marks the end of the line of the Potters, I will kill you and the boy you're hiding in there with that filthy blood traitor, you cannot stop what is to come," he told his opponent with confidence._

 _The older looking Harry laughed this time. "You are truly a fool Tom, do you really think she would wait and hope for me to beat you? She already took him and left, I was merely a distraction while she broke through all the wards your death eaters set-up and apparated out,"_ older Harry _paused trying to push Voldemort's spell back into the_ center _as he was losing concentration. "You're not going to kill me or them Voldemort, I will make sure of that."_

 _The Dark_ lord _screamed in rage. His plan had fallen apart. The months of planning had gone to waste. Voldemort started pushing Older Harry's spell back. Sparks of lightning left the golden ball that represented where the spells meet_ starting _moving slowly towards older Harry._

 _It looked like the older Harry was going to be hit by the killing curse when..._

Harry woke up in his bed dripping wet and panicking. He had no idea what was happening because his eyes were covered with hair. He heard laughter from his left and he pulled his wand out from under his pillow and pointed it in that direction. It only seemed to increase the laughter. He wiped his hand over his forehead, removing the hair and making him able to see who did this.

He saw Ron and Seamus laughing with Neville who was looking sheepish. He glared at them until they calmed down.

"Do you want to tell me what that was about?" Harry asked, annoyance in his voice.

"You were sleeping in so we decided to wake you," Ron told him, holding his stomach from too much laughing.

"So? It's a Saturday," Harry turned to dry his bed off with a charm

"We thought you wouldn't want to miss breakfast," Seamus answered still laughing a bit.

"Why didn't you just shake me awake? You wanted to show off your use of magic?" Harry snapped at them, the dream reminded him of all the power he couldn't have. It already made a bad start to his Saturday.

Their laughing ceased and they looked at Harry who looked expressionless, all three rubbed the back of their head whispering "sorry," before they left the dorm for the great hall. Harry sighed, today was not going to end well, especially with what happened last night.

He didn't even know her name and this only made things worse. He lost it last night, he could only think about her and only her but he did have a voice behind his head reminding him where they were. He didn't even think of using... a contraceptive charm.

'Bloody hell Potter you screwed yourself over and she's sure to blame you,' Harry rubbed his eyes with his hand.

He went to the bathroom, brushed his teeth and took a shower.

When he was all done and dressed, he went down to the common room. Seeing no one there, he left for the great hall, he walked slowly, lost in thought because of the dream. It felt real and yet it wasn't, he couldn't see himself performing all the spells in it but that was not what had his attention this time. Who could be worth fighting the Dark lord for?

Sirius came to mind first but he remembered they had mentioned it was a "She," so it couldn't be him. He pondered on who it could possibly be, he didn't have any female friends nor a woman who he could consider a motherly figure. She was also a blood traitor and so she had to be a pureblood. There was a boy too, one that he and this pureblood witch were protecting. 'It was just a weird dream,' Harry decided as he entered the great hall.

He saw Neville sitting near the end of the table alone, waiting for him near his usual seating place and walked towards it. He didn't even want to spare a glance at the Slytherin table because he knew some of them if not all of them already knew. He was however curious of how they reacted to him being here. Harry understood that it was not entirely his fault, he didn't intend for what happened to happen but they wouldn't understand that.

Harry and Neville had been growing a bit closer lately, they were both the end of mocks and insults and they found something to relate too.

"Hey mate," Harry greeted Neville as he slid onto the bench of the table, facing the Slytherin table.

"Hey Harry," Neville greeted back "Sorry about earlier we-"

"It's okay. I know it was meant to be a joke, don't apologize," Harry cut Neville off, starting to dish for himself.

"Thanks," Neville said and turned back to the food on his plate.

Harry turned his eyes to the Slytherin table. He saw four girls glaring at him, hands twitching to grab their wands but he didn't pay attention to them, he looked at the girl from last night. He could see the anger in her eyes, the type that he was sure he was going to get hexed because of it. He did feel extremely guilty. He wanted to apologize for whatever it was worth but he knew wouldn't even be able to approach her because her house probably knew.

"Nev," Harry started as he turned to Neville

"Huh?" Neville looked up from his food again.

"Who's that blonde girl at the Slytherin table," Harry nodded slightly toward her but Neville got it and glanced at the Slytherin table.

"Daphne Greengrass," Neville answered, raising an eye-brow "Are you interested in her also? I don't think it would be a good idea, more than half of the guys in our year is after her and-"

"No Neville, that's not it, I just..." Harry stopped

He had an idea, a simple one and he was sure it was only going to make her angrier but at least it would show his sentiment at a safe distance. He remembered the spell Tom used in the chamber of secrets to prove himself being Voldemort, he looked it up and it wasn't really draining at all. He pulled out is wand and pointed it straight ahead, unfortunately this was the Slytherin table and it attracted a bit of attention from his housemates who narrowed their eyes at him and looks of amusement from the Slytherin table. A few staff members also noticed the decrease in noise from the two houses.

"Harry what are you-" Angelina Johnson started from next to him but she stopped as her eyes went wide when he started writing in the air.

He started writing letters mid-air made of fire, forming "I'm sorry," , when he finished it he then swiped his wand over the words, they scrambled and start flying toward the Slytherin table. Some of them were clutching their wands under the table, while others seemed composed. The scrambled letters flew to Daphne and stopped right in front of her. They then unscrambled and reformed "I'm sorry," again.

Judging from her reaction, he could see she got the sentiment but it was far from appeasing her anger. The words vanished leaving nothing but a faint smell of something burning. Everyone minus, McGonagall, Snape, Flitwick and Dumbledore had their eyes wide from the act of magic. The said teachers however weren't because they knew the spell didn't require much energy if any at all but they were curious as to what he was sorry about.

Harry, noticing the attention, turned back down to his plate and started eating again. It turned out to be a mistake because when he tried to look up again, he saw Daphne who had her wand pointed at him shout "Vento Urente." The blasting spell hit him straight in the face, breaking his nose and cutting his lip, sending him out of the seat and falling with a hard 'thump' on the floor. He rolled on the floor, whining from the pain. A few of the Slytherin started to laugh and were slowly followed by the rest of the house.

Dumbledore tried to get up to help Harry but his whole body was tense and it did not want to move

Something in Harry snapped, he was tired of being laughed at, tired of being called a squib, tired of all the mistreatment bestowed upon him. The pain from his nose stopped and he started to get up to stand. Everyone watched in fear as his nose, which had looked to be broken, lost its pink color and the blood that had been dropping out of it, dissolved and his cut lip healed as if it were never there.

Harry stood there, anger over the roof and green aura flaring. He looked directly at the Slytherins and started to walk towards them, the whole Gryffindor table shifted towards the hall doors on the ground with everyone on it unable to move, the doors closed allowing the table to hit them with a loud 'Bang'. Harry closed in on the Slytherin table looking Daphne in the eye.

Daphne tried to lift her wand again but found she was unable to, she could hear strained grunts from her housemates meaning that they had reached the same conclusion. Harry drew near her and once he reached the table, Blaise, who had the seat that was in front of her shifted to the side leaving enough room for Harry to sit but he didn't, he put his hands on the table, smoke rising from where his hands lay.

"I was trying to apologize and you decide to hit me with a blasting curse? What happened yesterday night was an accident, something that shouldn't have been even brought up again but I felt guilty and had the audacity to apologize to you but when I do, you break my nose and cut my lip? People like you-" Harry stopped his rant when he noticed the look on her face. It was a look of fear, one he had never been the cause of to anyone. He took a step back and his aura broke with a powerful wave that upended the contents of all the house tables.

Harry heard Dumbledore calling for him before his world went black.

* * *

"I've never felt anything like it Albus," McGonagall told the old headmaster as she and Snape sat in the headmaster's office. Harry was still unconscious in the infirmary two days later. Madam Pomfrey had concluded it was from magical exhaustion. They had no time to talk about what had happened as Dumbledore had delved himself on finding what was truly happening but to no outcome except a possible theory.

"I too will admit that in my old life, it was the first time I had experienced something of that nature," Dumbledore frowned, Harry's case was truly confusing, he was considered extremely weak for years and he suddenly completed a feat that even Dumbledore would find highly difficult but Harry did it and he looked barely strained in the moment.

"What is wrong with the brat, his grades dwindle because he is unable to perform proper magic but what he did that morning was... more powerful than he should be," Snape said, almost complimenting Harry.

"I am unable to explain Harry's... Condition. It does not leave many possible solutions. He was able to heal himself instantly and render the whole student body and staff immobile, a feat that even I will find difficult and he could barely conjure a stunner last week. I fear that his case may be impossible to solve," Dumbledore told his most trusted staff members.

McGonagall pursed her lips. "Could it be that he was reacting to intense emotion?"

Snape shook his head. "Accidental magic? No McGonagall, accidental magic is the shattering of glass or even the bending of small objects, perhaps even inflating your muggle aunt but that was no accidental magic. It was something else completely."

"I concur with Severus. Harry left little magical residue, if it were accidental he would have left quite a bit. We may have been lucky this time as he realized what he was doing," Dumbledore turned to Snape "As such, I urge you to speak to your Slytherins, Severus, I dare say Harry may not realize what he is doing the next time and it could lead to dire consequences," Snape just nodded slowly at the headmaster

"Do you know what he could have been apologizing for to Miss Greengrass?" McGonagall asked with curiosity, after all, it did start with those inflamed words Harry sent to the girl who reacted rather unnecessarily to.

"I... I have a theory but it is rather.. disturbing, in a sense," Dumbledore answered a bit nervously.

"What is this theory of yours Dumbledore?" Snape asked with narrowed eyebrows, while McGonagall raised one of her eyebrows.

"I ask you to reconsider your question, Severus," The old wizard said

Snape's frown deepened. "Tell me, Dumbledore,"

Dumbledore sighed but started. "During the unnecessary detention Harry had with Miss Greengrass, they initiated in rather sexual activities in your classroom but-"

"Wha... You lie Dumbledore, my snakes despise Potter. They would never initiate such an act with him. How do you know this?" Snape's face was coming up with color never before seen on the human body. McGonagall's eyes were wide she was usually the quickest to recover from surprising news but this...

"It was not out of their free will, Severus but I again urge you to reconsider your question," Albus sighed.

"What do you mean it was not out of their free will Albus?" McGonagall cut in.

"The way they acted towards each other before the happenings was far from cordial but Harry had tripped on a table in the class, falling on Miss Greengrass thus making her drop potions she was carrying. I believe the potions had something to do with it," Dumbledore said frowning slightly.

"How do you know this Dumbledore?" Snape asked, calming down a bit but disgusted by the fact that this happened in his class.

"I have magical mirrors that can show the past happenings in the corridors and classrooms, while I was looking at the happenings of your class through the week I had stumbled upon the scene," Dumbledore told the disgusted professor.

"Did they use... any charms to prevent any unwanted consequences?" McGonagall said frowning deeply.

"As I did not watch the entire scene, I have no conclusion to that question but to my knowledge they did not," Dumbledore shook his head.

"That could mean... You are aware of the current relations of the Potter and Greengrass families, right? This could end very badly, Albus," McGonagall said.

"I know Minerva, I know," Dumbledore sighed.

* * *

Daphne had not been in a good mood for days since what happened with Potter in the great hall. She may not show it but she felt slightly guilty about doing what she did to him. The look in his eyes when he looked at her showed only misery and pain, feelings she understood to an extent but he looked almost… broken. She could not stop herself from feeling guilty. He had been asleep for a week and a half now but it was said he would wake up during the second week.

The Slytherins weren't taking what happened in the hall well, their ego had been dampened down considerably because someone who they had thought a squib had showed overwhelming superiority to them. They prided themselves in being cunning, ambitious and grooming the most powerful and intellectual wizards and witches known to magical Britain. They held numerous house meetings discussing the incident. They believed he might have used a spell that he didn't know, but all knew it was not possible.

They came to no conclusions and after the head of their house told them to not bother Potter when he woke up, they had ceased to speak about the incident. They now spoke of a new event, one that had been gleeful for most of the purebloods in the house.

Voldemort.

The Dark Lord had made his official return, though not to the public. More and more Death Eaters were returning to serve him after he freed the ones that had been captured and sent to Azkaban. Daphne knew there was going to be no neutrality but her father was going to stall for as long as he could. The Slytherins were holding a house assembly, deciding on whether to support the Dark Lord or stay neutral.

"We should join the Dark Lord. There will be a change in power soon, and it would be futile to defy him," Draco told his housemates as if there was no other option.

"It's that type of narrow minded thinking that will get you killed Malfoy," Daphne glared at the boy.

"Oh? Do you suggest we go against him?" Draco retorted

"No, we should stay neutral, at least until he proves himself the powerful lord he once was," Daphne said to the whole house this time.

"I concur, let us wait for him to make his return publicly, it would give us more of an insight on whether to join him or not," Warrington agreed.

"Neutrality will take us nowhere," Draco tried.

"So will fighting a war we might lose," Blaise said.

Draco sneered, "We won't lose the war. Father says the dark lord is just as powerful as he was before. He tore through the wards at Azkaban like they were nothing and fought off hundreds of Dementors,"

"Your father's words won't be sufficient Draco. He-" the conversation was interrupted by Daphne running to the girl's dorms, covering her mouth. Leaving everyone with raised eye-brows.

Daphne entered the girl's dorms and ran straight for the bathroom. Once inside there she vomited her lunch. This had been happening for a while now, she knew what was happening but she wouldn't accept it but she found there was nothing to do besides accepting that.

She was pregnant.

* * *

A/N: Okay, chapters are gonna get a lot better. I'm gonna try and fit in another chapter by Monday or Tuesday. '

Review, let me know what I'm doing wrong and what you would like to see.

B/N: I sincerely hope that everyone has enjoyed this chapter. It is a privilege for me to have the opportunity to edit and help make this story all that it can be.


	3. Hogshead

A/N: Another Chapter! So yes there's that... Bye.

* * *

Harry's eyes regretfully opened. It was the best sleep he has had in a while. His body felt relaxed and stress free. There was a downside however, he had a nightmare that he was freeing death eaters from Azkaban, killing auror after auror mercilessly and without any remorse. He couldn't even be touched by them. Some ran when they noticed his presence and others who were brave enough tried to fight, only to be killed almost instantly. 'It's only a dream,' he convinced himself.

He looked around and found Snuffles looking at him with worry from the floor, he didn't see Madam Pomfrey so he got up and took curtain walls to surround his bed. Once completely in closed Snuffles morphed into his Godfather, Sirius Black. He quickly crushed Sirius in a hug.

"Hey pup, how are you feeling?" Sirius asked once Harry broke the hug.

"I'm great! Haven't slept like that in a long time. What happened?" Harry questioned in confusion.

"You don't remember?" Sirius sounded a lot more worried

"I remember just little bits, but do you know how I did it?" Harry tilted his head slightly.

"Well, no, not yet. Dumbledore has been checking up on it but found nothing so far," Sirius explained, frowning.

"Of course, he hasn't." Harry sighed and sat back down on his bed, he then turned to Sirius and asked "How long was I out for? A day?"

"About that, it has been sometime since you passed out. Two and half weeks to be exact." Sirius looked at Harry for a reaction

"That long? Well that's bloody brilliant, how am I supposed to catch up in class. Especially with Umbridge giving so much homework about her stupid book." Harry's lip twitched at her name. He didn't like her, at all.

"For what's it worth, I'm sorry Harry," Sirius grinned at him.

"It's fine, but can I talk to you about something?" Sirius nodded at him and so Harry told Sirius about everything that has happened since the year started, including the incident in the potions class. "I didn't use any charm to stop her from getting... You know?" He felt uncomfortable saying the word for some reason.

"WHAT? How could you be so irresponsible?!" Sirius exclaimed.

"I told you, I couldn't think straight. It was the potions!" Harry glared at him.

"Oh yeah, sorry." Sirius took a breath. "I don't know pup, this is... Unexpected but I don't think I need to tell you what to do if she was pregnant. I would gladly welcome another Potter into this world like I did you. So please come to me if it ever is confirmed and you need my help." He gave harry a smile, receiving a hug in return.

"Thank you Sirius." Harry rubbed his eyes and sat back down on the bed of the infirmary, "What time is it?"

"It's around dinner time, hungry?" Harry's grumbling stomach gave him his answer. "You should go eat, I needed to leave anyway, I have guard duty today,"

"Guarding what?" Harry raised an eyebrow.

"I-I it's... Not important, Harry. You should write to me." Harry noticed the change in subject but decided not to push it because he trusted Sirius.

Harry nodded and smiled at Sirius who, with one last hug, morphed back into snuffles and left the infirmary. Harry took out his wand and said. "Lumos" he felt the familiar exhausting pull and sighed "Still the same." He was disappointed, he did all that at the great hall without lifting a hand or even a wand but now he was back to the pitiful old Harry.

Harry put away the curtain walls and put on his robes, he was about to leave when Madam Pomfrey got into the infirmary. "What are you doing out of bed, Potter?!" she shrieked. Harry let out a groan. He would be lucky to convince her that he was fine.

"I was going to dinner?" Harry tried anyway.

"You will be doing no such thing! You're on bed rest. I will get food for you," She told him sternly, leaving no choice but to oblige but Harry was stubborn.

"Madam Pomfrey, I'm fine. I've been stuck in here for two and a half weeks, I would like to go out and eat dinner," Harry told her reluctantly. The woman scared him. She was commanding and never took no for an answer when it came to student health.

"You have been unconscious for two and a half weeks, so I doubt patience was a problem." Pomfrey glared at him, making him cower a bit.

"Can't you just give me my potions to take? I promise I'm fine." Harry tried to return her stare. He was eyed carefully by the healer but she eventually averted her gaze from him and left for her storage room. She exited with more of the energy replenishing potions that Dumbledore gave him on a regular basis and handed them to him.

"You will drink them every time you feel even slightly tired. If not I will put you on bed rest for months," Pomfrey said with a serious expression and Harry believed her, he wouldn't take the chance even if he didn't. He nodded and put the potions in his robe pockets, he made his way to the infirmary door but looked back to see Madam Pomfrey still eyeing him, trying to check for anything she missed.

Harry quickly got out of the room, closing the door behind him before she changed her mind. He started walking towards the hall. The portraits talked quietly about him when he passed. He could already tell that the students were going to do the same when he entered the hall and that just made him shake his head. The students here were just sheep without fleece.

His thoughts shifted back to the incident. 'Did she think I was going to take the spell and say nothing?' he thought with disdain. Under normal circumstances, he just would have let her get away with it but he knew he did nothing wrong. He just wanted to apologize and she attacked him for it. Although what he did was unintentional, in a sense that he didn't really know he was doing it, during the time.

The face Greengrass made caused him to realize what he was doing. No one has ever looked at him that way before, and fear was an emotion that he never would have thought someone would direct at him. Especially in the magical world, especially with what his magic was like. He wasn't even stronger than a first year, but what he did proved something. He wasn't a squib by a long shot. Something was wrong with him and that thing was blocking his magic.

All the healers he went to were wrong. He read every book in the school's library and the one at the chamber of secrets. He found nothing in history of someone with whatever he had. 'Don't give yourself hope only to be disappointed, again,' Harry scowled. The same thing happened when he produced his patronus, he buried himself in books trying to find out about his 'condition,' and barely left the library if he when he was not in classes.

Harry neared the hall. He put on a blank face and turned into the hall, as he expected, everyone turned to him and the hall got quiet. He walked towards the end of the Gryffindor table, where Hermione was seated. He looked at Dumbledore and saw his eye twinkle on overload, he turned to Snape who wore a blank face, then to McGonagall who also had a blank face. He also noticed Umbridge's smile wasn't as large as normal. 'The fat toad probably hoped I would die,' he sneered in her direction.

He sat next to Hermione at the end of the table and started picking out food on his dish, when it was full he started eating. "You can go back to your food now," he told them not looking up from his plate and felt relaxed when they all started to chatter amongst themselves again.

"Hey Harry," Hermione greeted him.

"Hey," Harry greeted back.

"How are you feeling?" She questioned him.

"Good, I suppose," he looked up from his plate to see her watching him intently.

"That's good." She turned back down to her plate and started eating again. "Do you mind me asking a question?"

Harry nodded hesitantly. "That's why you were sitting near my usual spot. You wanted to ask me something? Go ahead then."

Her cheeks tinged pink but she asked her question. "What spell did you use that morning?" Those who were near tried to listened in on the answer.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "What spell could I have possibly used? I didn't have my wand out and Merlin knows what would happen to me if I tried to use wandless magic."

"Then how did you do that to everyone?" She frowned at him.

Harry looked down at his plate again. "I don't know Granger, it just happened," he raised his head again to look at the Slytherin table, more specifically, Daphne. He wasn't sure how she would take seeing him again, yet again, she was probably still angry. He found her already looking at him, he expected to see angry eyes but found... Concerned ones?

He racked his brain for the effects of the energy potions he was given while he was unconscious. 'Maybe hallucination is one of the unknown effects?' he thought but he held her gaze. Both wearing blank faces.

Daphne noticed he was taken back and she inwardly smiled.

 _Days earlier._

"So that's what this is all about," Daphne told Blaise, as they sat in the Slytherin common room, with silencing wards set up.

"Well, that is... Interesting to say the least." Blaise rubbed his eyes, "Dumbledore's unofficial squib underling though?"

"I told you, POTIONS," She emphasized potions to get the point across, "I would have avoided it if I could have."

"It had to be him and with your family history I doubt your father is going to take it well," Blaise frowned.

Daphne smirked. "Of course he won't but I wouldn't be in Slytherin if I couldn't find a resolution, for my father and for the betterment of the most Ancient and Noble house of Greengrass," she said with a mischievous look.

"Oh? Mind elaborating?" Blaise raised an eyebrow.

"The Greengrass lineage is one of the wealthiest and most influential wizarding families in magical Britain, but even my father, who dislikes the Potters, will admit that they are more wealthy and influential when compared to us." She took a deep-breath then continued, "Potter is the last of his line, well for now but if I could manipulate him, I could give my father one of the most influential individuals in Britain and if Potter is like any other Gryffindor as he seems to be, this won't be hard at all." Daphne concluded.

"Your plan makes sense, but how do you plan on getting him wrapped around your finger?" Blaise smiled at his friend.

"Make him fall in love with me. As you already know Gryffindors like to wear their emotions on their sleeves. I'm sure he would do anything to keep me safe and protected." Daphne smiled back, she remembered when she came into Slytherin common room crying, it was really Gryffindor-ish on her side but she felt it was justified.

Blaise started chuckling a bit. "You are something Greengrass. When do you plan on starting this resolution of yours?"

"As soon as he wakes up, obviously." Daphne sat back on the sofa.

"Don't forget me and Tracey when you get there Daphne." Blaise smirked at Daphne.

"Wouldn't dream of it." Daphne smirked back.

This was not going to be hard at all.

* * *

Harry woke up the next morning feeling energetic. He turned to see Ron exiting the bathroom, wearing his Gryffindor robes. He got up and went into the bathroom, preparing for the day. He exited the bathroom twenty minutes later and saw Neville and Ron, deciding to converse, he went up to them, "Hey Neville, Ron," He greeted them.

"Hey Harry," Neville greeted back.

"Hey mate," Ron nodded at him.

"Want to head to the hall for Breakfast?" Harry asked, they both nodded and they all left the tower towards the hall. "How much of class did I miss?" Harry questioned.

"Not much really, well, besides at defense," Neville answered bitterly, he too did not like the teacher.

"That Umbridge is mental I tell you. We don't even learn anything new," Ron sneered.

"Yeah but-" Neville started but stopped talking when three Slytherin girls walked up to them in the corridor. He wasn't really sure how to react but reaching for his wand was his first instinct, Ron did so also.

Daphne needed to speak to Harry. She was accompanied by Tracey and Astoria, who refused to leave her alone with him. Tracey and Astoria laughed at Neville and Ron because the boys tried to reach for their wands but Daphne just stared at Harry, who in turn had his eyebrows narrowed at her.

"We just want to speak to Potter," Astoria spoke after calming down.

Harry felt angry. He knew Daphne was the one who wanted to talk to him but for what? Did she want to break his nose again? "What makes you think I want to speak to you?" Harry frowned.

"What Potter? Afraid of three snakes?" Tracey rolled her eyes.

"I speak snake you git! You should be the last thing I fear," He hissed at her in parselmouth a bit angrily, making them shiver "I would rather talk to Daphne alone, seeing as she is the one who really wants to talk to me." Harry looked Daphne in the eye.

"Not going to happen Potter. Not after what happened the last time you were in a room alone with her," Astoria said. Ron and Neville's eyes widened and they turned to look at Harry.

"Well then, it's only fair that I bring Ron and Neville with me," Harry concluded, he was not as close to Ron as he was to Neville but he knew he was a nice guy, although he wasn't the best prefect. 'Might as well expand my circle of friends' he thought with a small smile.

"You can't do that Potter, they-" Astoria started

"Is hypocrisy also a Slytherin trait?" Harry interrupted her. Daphne moved towards him and grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards an empty classroom, the others in pursuit. They all entered the classroom and Tracey put silencing wards on the door. Harry turned to Daphne, expecting her to start talking but he was surprised to have a wand at his throat while being pushed back against the wall. Neville and Ron pulled out their wands but were disarmed.

"If I remember correctly, this did not end well for you last time, Greengrass," Harry looked at her. He wasn't angry, just confused. She looked calm and collected outside now she had a look of utter fury.

"Do you have any idea what you did to me you stupid squib?!" She shrieked at him, Harry's nose twitched at being called a squib but he kept calm.

Harry glanced at Neville and Ron. They had wands pointed at them so they looked a bit nervous, then he turned back to the blue eyes in front of him and sighed. "I'm going to assume this is about what happened in the potions classroom?"

"It's more than that Potter! Did you not even think of using a contraceptive charm?!" She dug her wand a bit deeper into his throat.

"Bloody hell, Harry," Ron said, if he didn't have wands pointed at him, he would've congratulated him. He could see Neville at the corner of his eye fighting a grin.

Harry winced slightly. "Our judgement was clouded, so why is this even important now? I tried apologizing, didn't I?" He raised his voice at the end.

"As if words would fix what's happening. They meant nothing. You only made people want to ask questions," She sneered at him.

"Fix what's happening? What are you talking about Greengrass?" Harry was even more confused now.

"Are you a squib and daft at the same time? Put it together, Potter. Even you should be able to figure it out!" Her voice cracked at, she had tears rolling down and it took everything Astoria and Tracey had to not go comfort her, even though they knew what she was doing.

Neville was looking dizzy. He figured it out and Ron was just pinching his nose, he also figured it out. Neville knew of the relationship the Potters had with the Greengrass' and understood this was not going to end well for both of them.

Harry let out a breath, he looked at Daphne for a bit then thought about what she's been saying to him, 'Contraceptive charm, used to stop...' his body visibly tensed to everyone in the room. He used the wall behind him as support and shrunk to the floor to sit down. Harry knew he was going to have another hard year but this quadrupled his problems, "Since when have you known?"

She didn't answer, only kept crying. Harry was always uncomfortable whenever he was near emotional people and he found this a bit out of character for a Slytherin. He wasn't really sure what to do. He never was when it came to this type of thing. He glanced at the others in the room and found them looking at him expectantly. He still wasn't sure what to do but he did what his heart told him and he went up to embrace her.

Now he expected her to push him away and send a killing curse in his direction but she openly sobbed into his chest. He felt a warning sign coming from where he knew his magical core was but shrugged it off and continued embracing the crying girl.

It was going to be a rough year indeed.

* * *

October the fourth, Friday night, Harry sat in Umbridge's office writing "I will not tell lies" using a blood-quill. Any protest he would give would end in him being stunned and obliviated. The pain was unbearable and she was just looking at him with a wide smile, she was clearly enjoying this. He has been here, every night, for the past three days. He got detention for the smallest things he would do, talking in class even though everyone else was talking, having his wand on the table when her lessons begun, even reading her book too slowly, the last part was purposely done though, there was nothing to learn in them.

He learned that in his absence, the toad was made high inquisitor, meaning she held the power to cast away any teacher and add new rules as she desired. McGonagall warned him about Umbridge after he got his first detention this week, even with that he had no way of not getting detentions from her. He also found out from the daily profit that the ministry knew that Sirius was hiding somewhere in London which doubled his worry over his godfather.

This writing however, made him forget about everything and made him focus on it, trying to lessen the pain whatever way he could.

"My time is done, can I leave now?" Harry gritted his teeth.

"Is it time already," Umbridge asked delightfully, she was enjoying his suffering far too much.

"This is wrong and I will report it!" He glared at the professor, making his way to the door.

She laughed and Harry almost scrubbed his ear on the door. "It would be the ministries word against yours. No one would believe you. You could have just caused it yourself,"

Harry exited without another word. He left the classroom while inspecting the back of his hand. It looked like someone had scribbled on with a knife and any movement with it would result in more pain, he was sure he wouldn't even be able to hold his wand at the end of the term if this kept up. He closed the door and looked around, seeing no one he put on his invisibility cloak. He went up to the sixth-floor corridors or otherwise known as near where the Slytherin dungeons were.

He stopped in front of a classroom and looked around again, making sure no one was there. He opened the door, upon entering he was greeted by the sight of an annoyed looking blonde haired Slytherin.

"Hey, sorry I'm late. Umbridge kept me longer than usual." Harry pulled down the hood of the cloak. He and Daphne started dating two days ago, after a week of trying to get to know each other. She was the one to suggest it, he was skeptical at first because his core would give out what he assumed was a warning whenever he was with her but Sirius said "She's making an effort, you should too," and so he did. No one knew of their relationship but he was sure Tracey and Astoria knew because of the smirk he would get from them if he was looking at Daphne in the great hall and so he told Neville and Ron, it was only fair.

Daphne eye him for a moment before walking up to him and pecking him on the lips and hugged him. "It's okay. I know what she's doing to you and I'm sorry I can't help." Then she pulled back from him "Can I see?"

"I don't think that's..." He stopped when she tried to glare at him "I thought you would know by now that your Ice-Queen glare thing you've worked out doesn't work on me."

She huffed and took his hand from under the invisibility cloak and gasped. "It's worse than yesterday," she pulled out her wand "Sana Venarum" the healing spelled healed all of torn veins and tissue but left them exposed without any flesh to cover them. "I don't know any spell to heal torn skin," she looked up at him to find him smiling at her, she frowned. "What?"

"Nothing," He coughed. "Try Sana Caro and do a semicircle over my hand."

She put her wand over his hand. "Sana Caro" while doing the semicircle over his hand and watched as the skin healed but the lines of the drawings still held.

"Thanks." he kissed her cheek and went to go sit by a chair.

"Are Slytherins invited to that Defense club meeting at Hogshead inn tomorrow?" She bit her lip.

"Well, no, I'm sure you understand with the record of your house and all but I think I can pull you in," Harry told her. When she kept quiet Harry pulled out his wand and frowned at it. This had been bothering him since he knew of the baby.

"What's wrong?" she asked, concern dripping through her voice. 'Wow Greengrass you sure do know how to act,' she congratulated herself.

"A lot of things actually," he looked up to her from his wand "You want to know what type of core my wand has?"

She frowned at him unsure where this was going. "Okay?"

"Phoenix feather,"

"I'm not knowledgeable when it comes to wand cores," Daphne said to him.

"Okay, have you ever heard someone saying he or she had the same core?" Harry asked

Daphne pondered on it for a moment. She knew of most of the cores her housemates had but never heard of this one. "No I haven't," She knew what she was going to study next time she was in the library. "Where are you going with this Harry?"

"It's arguably the most powerful wand in the magical world, after the elder wand of course." Her eyes widened but she recovered and gestured for him to continue. "Now the question is, why such a wand would ironically choose me? Of all the wizards that are more powerful and that could possibly use the wand at its full potential, it chose ... me."

"Why is this a problem all of the sudden?" She stood up and went to hold his hand.

"I..." He looked her in the eye and then down to her stomach, then back to his wand. "I want to be able to protect you... I mean both of you. I can't do that if I can't cast even a simple stunner without passing out," he said in frustration and sparks erupted from the wand in his hand.

Daphne looked at him for a moment thinking about what to say, "I'll... I mean we'll be safe you don't need to worry about us. I trust you enough to protect me if it's what your worried about" she lied, while she was slightly touched at his sentiment, the question he was asking got her thinking, it didn't make sense. "Enough being glum, how's your knowledge on spells?"

He smirked at her, "Besides Dumbledore, I know the most spells in the school,"

Her eyes widened, "Even Professor Snape?"

"Snape is actually a close fourth in the school, after McGonagall," he smirked at her face.

She narrowed her eyebrows at him, "How do you know this?"

"I'm Dumbledore's favorite. Of course I would know about this type of thing," He joked.

She asked in a dead serious tone, "Why?"

"Why what?" he questioned

"Why are you his favourite?" Daphne asked still serious.

"I was joking... but I see where you're coming from and I don't know." He pulled out his wand again. "Tempus." It was 12:33 he turned to Daphne "I think, I'm going to go back to the tower," He said, then pulled her into a snogging session. Harry felt the weird warning from the spot of his magical core again, he pulled away from her, "Goodnight Daph." He then exited the room.

Daphne smirked, it was going as planned.

* * *

Twenty-eight students sat in Hogshead pub, Aberforth cleaning a cup with a dirty rag while grunting about there being too many customers behind them. Majority being Gryffindor and the lesser being Slytherins. Daphne had brought Tracey, Astoria and Blaise with her, much to the dismay of some of the people attending.

"I still don't understand why the Slytherins are here. They're just going to cause problems," Terry Boot sneered.

"Yeah, the snakes should leave," Ernie Macmillan concurred.

"No, I don't remember saying there were never going to be Slytherins or that they were ever forbidden," Hermione told the boys.

"Let's just talk about why we're here," Lisa Turpin said getting a nod from everyone else.

"Right, I asked for us to me here because I wanted us to form a Defense club, because we learn nothing from Umbridge and her books. We would learn spells and how to duel so we can be able to defend ourselves," Hermione said in an unsure voice.

"Defend ourselves from what?" Justin Finch said from the back.

"You would be surprised," Harry looked at Justin.

"You think we believe you about that garbage you spew about the Dark Lord being back Potter?" Justin retorted.

"I believe him," Cho smiled at Harry, getting one in return. Daphne frowned slightly.

"I too, but this isn't about that, we need to learn defense," Hermione continued.

"Yeah but-"

"Who's going to-?"

"Teach us," Fred and George spoke up.

"How about Harry," Every eye turned to Daphne. Harry looked at her with wide eyes, "Rumor has it, he knows quite a few spells, only second to Dumbledore in the school," She continued.

Hermione scowled, "I haven't heard that one."

"Me neither, but even if it was true, it won't help if the squib can't cast them anyway," Kevin Entwhistle said, looking at Harry. Harry's nose twitch at the name and he could feel his wand heating up in his pocket.

"He could just explain them to us," Luna said from the front. "Tell us the movements and the incantations," A few nodded, others didn't believe in the rumor of the spells he knew.

"I heard you could cast a patronus Harry, is it true?" Neville looked at him, followed by everyone else.

"What? Of course not," Harry looked at Neville with a glare that said 'Try again, I dare you' but Neville didn't look fazed.

"Then how did you survive that Dementor attack earlier this year?" Neville asked, he as everyone had learned about that trial.

"I... This isn't about me. Let's talk about defense, patronus charms won't help in defense," Harry concluded.

"So you can cast it?" Ginny spoke up this time, a smile plastered on her face. Ron snickered next to her.

"Maybe, but let's talk about defense, please," Harry sighed, he didn't like being the center of attention, contrary to popular belief.

"But how? That is one of the hardest spells to learn and requires a lot of power and you can barely cast a stunner," Padma Patil said, it wasn't meant as an insult. She was genuinely curious about how he could do it.

"I don't know. I might be able too, maybe not but now let's talk about defense," He said to them. He did however have a new theory on his magic. It would unleash itself during moments of intense emotion. Happiness. His core took it as a completely new emotion, What with Harry rarely ever being Happy, it didn't understand it and so it was his to 'trick' it in a sense.

"Show us," The twins said in unison.

"I'm not going to show you the charm," Harry told them, lifting his head up.

"WHY NOT?" they all shouted, earning a glare from Aberforth.

"You guys can cast and show off all different sorts of spells that I can't, I want to have one for myself, one you won't be able to cast. I'm sorry but no," Harry said sternly

"You're being a bit selfish, Harry," Katie Bell said from next to him.

"Fine, I'm selfish but my answer is still no."

* * *

A/N: It's gonna be a one sided Haphne for now, in terms of Harry genuinely liking her in the relationship and her just faking it for her agenda but it'll happen.

Yes Harry's magical core is different, won't say how.

Review please.

B/N: I hope everyone has enjoyed this. It has been an honor to work with Baphiwens on this story


	4. Portree

**A/N: A day behind schedule for me! I'm sorry. I'm gonna try and post the next as soon as possible**

* * *

Two days after the meeting at Hogshead inn, the group was formed and was to be taught by Hermione but they were in need of a place to train. Harry was at the receiving end of scowls from his peers again because he refused teach them the patronus charm, they didn't understand what it was to be like he was. They just wanted to learn it so they could show off in classes or to those who didn't know it. They took the power they had for granted and didn't appreciate it.

He wasn't even surprised by their behavior anymore, they befriended him when they wanted something and became his enemy when they couldn't get it. He didn't regret his decision but some of the defense club members thought he would change his mind, but they were wrong. He wouldn't teach them anything if he could, he was done with the praising me now and hating me later thing they like to pull on him.

"Why don't you really want to teach anyone or even me the patronus charm?" Daphne scowled at him. They sat in an empty classroom after quidditch practice for Harry, a few hours away from dinner. She still trying to convince him to teach her but she wasn't having any luck.

Harry sighed, "I told you Daph, I want to have a spell to myself. You could list me all the spell we've learned since first year and I wouldn't be able to do even half of them, while as you can do all of them without passing out," he retorted.

Her glare softened before returning, "You said you wanted to protect me but you won't teach me to defend myself against one of the most dangerous magical creatures?" she tried to guilt him.

Harry only smiled at her though, "Prongs will always be there, don't worry about Dementors."

Daphne looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "Who's Prongs?"

"My patronus," Harry told her, he hasn't told her everything, not yet. At least until the tugging he felt on his core when he was with her disappeared, it made him feel... Skeptical to say the least.

"I'm going to ignore the fact that you named your patronus, how would you know if I was ever in danger of being kissed and even so how would it reach me in time?" She questioned.

"Just-Don't worry about that, you don't have to worry about Dementors," Harry held her hand, "Besides, learning it will be really draining and it could be dangerous for you, what with you splitting some of your power with the baby."

"Are you always going to be this protective?" She sneered and pulled her hand away from his, "I'm pregnant, not helpless and I'm only three weeks along, it only needs an extremely small fraction of my power to protect it, you can still teach me."

"It's still too draining, you're going to need everything to learn it and besides that, there is still my earlier statement. I want a spell to myself," Harry said, feeling curious as to why she wanted to learn it so much.

"You can cast it and you're practically a squib-I mean-" She winced, some fear coming to her eyes when she saw his face darken sinisterly.

"No, don't try and change your wording" Harry spat venomously "I will say that I'm disappointed, I thought we were past you calling me that," Not giving her time to retort he turned his back on her, "Now, I have to find my owl," He made for the door but felt a hand on his shoulder, he shrugged it off and left the room after saying more calmly, "We'll talk later Daphne."

Daphne opened the door and look in both directions of the corridor and saw no one. He was gone. She cursed, _'Gryffindors and their inability to hold in emotions.'_

She left the classroom for Slytherin dungeons, upon reached the portrait. Which was a portrait of Salazar Slytherin, not the original but one that was made by the higher years so it could be put out here for the entrance of the dungeons.

"Superiority," She said the password. The portrait smirked at her but slid open. She entered the common room, which was not so full because most of the house was either in the library or up in their dorms. Pansy and Tracey were present however and she went and sat between them on the sofa with a sigh.

"Alright, what's wrong?" Tracey closed the daily profit newspaper she was reading.

"Potter," Daphne responded.

Pansy rolled her eyes, "What did that attention seeking prat do this time?"

"He didn't want to teach me the patronus... So I… called him a squib on accident," Daphne told her friends. They both looked at her for a second, then they both burst out laughing. Daphne frowned at them "What could you two possibly find funny? I accidently broke my act and he's angry. It puts my plans on hold."

"What did you expect to happen, the squib is in Gryffindor for a reason after all," Pansy answered.

"Just apologize Daph, he's probably going to forgive you without much of a fuss," Tracey told her best friend.

"Gryffindor or not, it could be harder than you think. He despises being called that, he probably took it hard," Daphne said frustratingly.

"He might have, might not have but you should just do it if you want to achieve your means end," Tracey looked at Daphne "Have you told Potter that he has to tell your father about the baby?"

"That would be something I would want to see," Pansy snorted.

Daphne shook her head "No," She replied quietly. Although she did not like who the father was, she wanted their baby to have the best life possible and that would mean having him around, which she felt unlikely because of the Dark lord being after his blood.

"The daily profit would go crazy with there being another Potter coming," Tracey giggled as Daphne hit her shoulder.

"It would also improve my family's influence, I just hope my father see's it like that when Ha-Potter tells him," Daphne frowned. She knew her mother would be disappointed but would welcome it with open arms at the end of the day but her father was a completely different story. Potter was just a filthy half-blood to him but she would explain her plan and he would hopefully see her side.

"Like Pansy is doing with Malfoy right?" Tracey smirked at Pansy.

"Ugh, it isn't as if I want to. My parents made me act like I'm in love with him for the power and influence," Pansy shivered, "Although Daphne does make this a lot harder what with Malfoy being smitten with her," She looked at Daphne playfully.

"Well too bad for him, Potter already has her," Tracey and Pansy laughed at this, causing Daphne to groan.

* * *

Harry really was disappointed, when they started dating she started calling him by his name, instead of 'Potter', but now he felt she thought of him as a squib and neither of the two. This only deepened his suspicion about something being off about their relationship. He wanted to trust her but found he couldn't bring himself to it, he figured the uncomfortable tugging he felt from his core whenever he was with her had something to do with it. His body would tense without his consent whenever they snogged or even hugged. He held affections for her, he was sure of that but what he felt was unexplainable.

He sighed and shook his head, he had to find Hedwig. His owl was missing since yesterday, he went to the owlery only to find white feathers and some blood. The other owls looked fine so he knew someone attacked Hedwig to specifically spite him.

Ron and Neville were helping him find her, they were the only ones that respected that he did not want to teach them the charm but it was clear that they were disappointed. He searched every corridor and even parts of the forbidden forest but to no avail. He had no idea who could have done it, he thought of Malfoy but he had not bothered Harry this year yet. Umbridge came to mind after, he was sure the woman hated his guts, it had to be her.

He decided to go back to the common room, hoping his friends found out. He went up the moving stairs and got to the portrait.

"Password?" The Fat Lady asked.

"Bravery."

"Come in dear," The portrait slid open.

He entered and looked around for Ron and Neville, they sat on the sofa talking to themselves, Harry approached them asking "did you find her?"

Ron nodded, "I went to ask if any of the elves had seen anyone with her and one named Dobby said Professor Grubbly-Plank found her and was healing her injuries."

Harry sighed in relief, she was okay. "Thank you guys," The boys nodded at him. "Dobby," He called. To his surprise, the elf appeared with Hedwig on his arm. Hedwig flew and perched herself on Harry's shoulder, nipping his ear to let him know she was okay. Harry rubbed her head, then turned to Dobby, "Thanks Dobby."

To Harry's dismay, Dobby started tearing up, "The great Harry Potter is thanking Dobby. Dobby does not deserves it." Dobby said, wiping the tears from his eyes.

Harry smiled and knelt in front of Dobby and place a hand on his shoulder, "You do deserve it Dobby, you don't need to cry," He then stood up, "I need your help Dobby."

Dobby stopped sobbing and jumped up and down at the chance of helping Harry, "Of course sirs, anything."

"We need a room to practice magic... A lot of magic. Do you know any room that could help us with this in Hogwarts?" Harry asked.

Dobby nodded enthusiastically, "Dobby is knowing sir."

Harry looked over to Neville and Ron, as they both stood up. "Then show us please?"

The elf nodded and skipped, yes, skipped out of the common room, the three boys behind him. Harry told Hedwig to go back to the owlery and that she should fly away if anyone with a Slytherin crest and pink clothing should show up. They received odd looks from other students for following Dobby but they ignored them and the group arrived at the seventh-corridor and stood face to face with a wall.

Dobby started walking from one point of the corridor to the other repeatedly

"What is he doing?" Ron whispered to Harry, Neville also looked at him expecting an answer.

"I don't know," Harry said to both of them. Dobby continued to do this but the third time he walked past for the third time, the wall changed. Showing patterns of different shapes and objects, a large door formed between the patterns.

"Please comes in sirs," Dobby said to them while he went through the door. The boys looked at each other before going into the room. Their eyes widened when they saw the contents of the room. The walls, floor and ceiling was made of metal and there were a number of dummies. It was rather large and the door was still present behind them.

"This is amazing Dobby, How did you do this?" Harry asked the elf, while Ron and Neville decided to test the dummies out.

"It's the room of requirements, yous have to move in front of the wall three times and thinks what you want and it will appear in this room," Dobby answered.

"Thanks Dobby, you should go back to the kitchens before Winky gets worried," Harry smirked at the elf who nodded and disappeared. He turned back to the boys who were already firing spells at the dummies, although not very accurately. He then realized that being part of the defense group was pointless, he wouldn't be able to do any of the spells and he was sure there was nothing Hermione could teach him.

Hermione was a bit more frustrated towards him than the rest of the members of the defense group because of what Daphne said about the amount of spells he knew, being the brightest witch of her age, she thought that title extended to wizards but was displeased to be wrong. _'The girl's egotistical, so what?'_ Harry scoffed. His thoughts shifted to someone else at the thought of egotistical girls.

Daphne.

He knew how this was going to go with her at the end of the day, she was going to apologies and he was going to forgive her. He realized that he might have overreacted a bit and that she maybe she just let the word slip but he was still disappointed. She understood that he hated being called a squib but she still called him one, meaning she did think of the word when she was talking to him, even if she let the word slip it just reinforced his point.

"What's wrong?" Neville asked, noticing his face.

"Daphne," Harry sighed.

"What happened?" Ron and Neville asked at the same, causing all three of them to laugh.

"She called me a squib," Harry stated, rubbing his scar. It was followed by silence, they had no idea on what to say.

"I'm… Sorry?" Ron tried, scratching his neck.

"Yeah that'll help," Neville said sarcastically, looking at him.

"Don't apologize. We should tell Hermione so she can tell everyone else about the room," Harry changed the subject and turned to the door, "Although we shouldn't tell her how to get the room to works, keep it to ourselves."

"Okay," Neville laughed as they exited the room

"You keep a lot to yourself Harry," Ron said, earning a small chuckle from him. They watched the door shrunk and disappeared.

"Yeah well, I'm trying to take advantage of everything I can. What with the most powerful Dark Lord out to kill me, I have no idea who to trust. Gryffindor or not," Harry said, remembering the incident with Ginny during second year. Even though she was controlled, whats to say it could not happen again?

Neville and Ron shared a look behind him, "We've got your back Harry," Neville spoke first.

Harry smiled, "Thanks, where do you think Hermione is?" trying to avert the subject of Voldemort, he knew he stood not chance against him but he would do his best to survive. He wanted to be there for his son or daughter, he didn't want his child to have the same life he did.

"We've been in there for a bit, it's dinner now. So she's most likely in the great Hall," Ron said after casting a Tempus

Harry nodded and the group made their way to the great hall. His scar felt itchy and was warmer than usual, it wasn't annoyingly so but made him scratch it every minute or two. He always wondered why it got incredibly painful when Voldemort was near and how it got much worse when he touch him. Dumbledore would always avoid the question whenever Harry asked and thinking about it now angered Harry.

 _& Stupid old man,&_ Harry hissed, stopping those next to him. His eyes widened.

"W-What Harry?" Neville stuttered

"I-Nothing let's just go to the hall," Harry started walking again. The two boys didn't follow but they did after a few seconds. Harry was rubbing his scar the whole way there but stopped when they entered the hall, so he wouldn't draw attention. They made their way to the middle of the table where Hermione was seated. Ron was the one to sit next to her, he leaned in and whispered that they found a place to practice and to tell everyone to meet them at the seventh-corridor. Hermione nodded and turned back to her food.

"Daphne's eyeing you Harry," Neville whispered next to him.

Harry glanced at Slytherin table and indeed saw her looking directly at him, Tracey was also looking at him. "Let her," Harry whispered back bitterly, he felt angry at everyone and everything. If Daphne expects him to come crawling to her, she had another thing coming. She was like all the other Slytherins, repugnant. He was a fool to think she might have been different.

Harry swayed his head to the left, cracking his neck. He turned back to his food and calmed down, _'You're overthinking things,'_ he berated himself. He began to eat but still felt eyes on him, he tried to ignore the feeling but found it difficult and he looked at the Slytherin table again and found Daphne still looking at him. She mouthed _'I'm sorry,'_ to which Harry shook his head and mouthed back _'Okay'_.

He finished his meal and got up to leave, when he reached the hall doors, he saw Daphne getting up from the corner of his eye. He went around the corner of the corridor and she followed suit not too long after. Entering the classroom, he left the door open knowing she was the only one behind him. When she entered, she closed the door and turned to him.

"I really am sorry," Daphne said almost pleadingly.

"It doesn't even matter anymore," Harry answered plainly.

"I-Are you sure?" She questioned, she thought this was going to be a lot harder. _'Gryffindors are Gryffindors'_ She smirked inwardly.

"It's just a word isn't it? Like Voldemort," She winced a little at the name and Harry smirked, "What was that?"

She saw the point he was trying to make, being a squib was something he feared. "I understand Harry, I didn't mean to call you that. I just wanted to-" She was interrupted by the door opening, fearful that they had been caught, she tried to grab Harry's cloak from his robes but it was too late. She looked at Harry who was actually smiling at whoever was entering, she turned to the door and saw Snape eyeing them. Daphne's eyes widened, " I-I p-pro-,"

"Relax yourself Greengrass," He told her with a straight face then turned to Harry and sneered, "The headmaster requests your presents."

Harry pecked Daphne on the lips, who was still frozen from being caught by Snape and turned to smile at the professor's scowling face. Harry left the room without another word.

Snape turned to Daphne, "The boy has had many hardships in his life, I do not like him but I do not condone anyone making him suffer, while I'm aware of the current standings between your family has with his, treat him well Greengrass or the consequences would be quite dire," Snape left a gaping Daphne in the room. For once he thought of Harry as Lily's son and not James's, he still hated him with a passion but he felt that he needed to say something like that.

For Lily.

* * *

A figure slowly opened its eyes. It survey its current area and gave a grin that would make others question its sanity. It wasn't sane per say, but others didn't know that. Most didn't live long enough whenever he was near to ever question it. He saw his wand a bit of a distance away, he reached for it and it flew to his outstretched hand, and upon contact with his hand the trees surrounding him were cut clean and caught fire as they tumbled down.

He started to get up but he felt stiff not in a physical sense but magically, like his magic hadn't been used in week and was begging for an exit. A stretch was in order, he noticed a nearby village and smirked, killing the people there was going to be a bonus. He raised wand and pointed it to the sky, taking a breath, he start to spin it in a circular motion. Circular flames started to surround him and they were growing in power and size with each twirl he gave to his wand.

He relaxed his body, allowing his magic to flow through being. He could feel it in his veins, his heart and it was so powerful he was sure he could taste it. The flames grew into a full on tornado, touching the sky and twirling the clouds in its vicinity. It did not stop however, it only grew, and obliterating the trees it came into contact with. He started walking towards the village with little haste.

The villagers all exited their homes, most of them were wizards and witches but they could not even comprehend what they were seeing. They could sense a powerful magical signature come from the tornado and so they understood it had to be a wizard. They drew their wands even if they were with muggles, the use of magic in front of them was allowed if the situation was life threatening. The threw all the spells they knew that could counter fire at the incoming tornado, all putting their power and concentration into them but it only seemed to make matters words.

The man felt their futile attempts at neutralizing his fire storm and it filled him with pride to feel the fear rolling out of them in waves. He kept walking towards them slowly, so he could prolong their suffering. He momentarily stopped his circular movement on his wand so he could put up anti-apparition and anti-floo wards. He returned to his movement though and increased the velocity of the fire.

The wizards and witches could only gape as the fire approached, no transport system was working. They had called for aurors but even they would not arrive in time or that they simply couldn't. The houses caught fire before the flames even touched them. They were going to meet their end and they felt sorry for the muggles who had no idea on what was happening. They felt their skins starting to burn and they all screamed in agony.

The village knew no more.

* * *

Hundreds of aurors and Dementors stood just outside the village of Portree or whatever was left of it. The witch that had called for them had said "Bring all you can please," and her voice was begging, a strong plea for help. Fudge thinking it was another isolated Death Eater attack like during the World Cup, had sent all the auror who were not occupied with their patrols.

The majority just stood there, unable to process what they were seeing. A village that was filled with hundreds of muggles and wizards alike was completely wiped out. The stronger willed aurors had gone in to investigate, while the Dementor giving off an ever chilly feeling in the air, were surveying the area. Nothing stood of the village except ashes, not even the remains of the residents pursued.

Tonks being one of the stronger willed aurors, had gone into the little remains. She was almost petrified at the destruction caused here but she had to do her job here and report it back to the order. The person that she thought could do this was Voldemort, he had to have come personally to destroy the village. She could not be sure however and to support her suspicion, she decided to check the Magical signature.

 _"Idem patiare innubere nostris,"_ She casted the identifying spell. Her legs gave out and she fell hard on the floor. The identity of the person who did this was impossible, it just couldn't be. For more than one reason, it couldn't be and she refused to believe he would do something like this even if he could. She heard gasps from the other aurors who were also investigating the area, who had come to the conclusion.

She had to tell Dumbledore.

Dumbledore flood into 12 Grimmauld place, he looked around and saw all of the members of the order present. EVERYONE was present for the emergency called in by Tonks, even Kingsley who was supposed to be guarding the prophecy. Dumbledore has tried to convince Tonks that it could have waited until tomorrow but she was quite insistent on it being now and today.

She looked shaken and so no one worded their inner protests, they only sat there patiently waiting for the meeting to begin. Dumbledore took a seat, "I apologize for the time of the calling of this meeting but it seems to be of the up most importance," he indicated for Tonks to begin.

"Portree was attacked tonight," She started

"This is a waste of time, could this not wait until tomorrow?" Snape sneered.

"Shut up and listen," Remus snapped at Snape.

"What is the extent of the damage?" Dumbledore asked, he knew there was much more to the tale but felt he needed to know this.

"It was completely destroyed. No one managed to escape. Hundreds of muggles, wizards and witches alike all gone," She said grimly, it was followed by silence.

"Why would the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters do that? He has never been one for genocide even for him being so far in the dark," McGonagall recovered first.

"It wasn't him or his death eaters," Tonks sighed.

"Who could it have been then?" Dumbledore frowned, this did not seem to be good.

"It was..."

* * *

 **A/N: The plot begins! Probably figured who?**

 **Review, tell me what I'm doing wrong and suggestions.**

 **B/N: As always, it has been an honor to work with Baphiwens on this story. I hope you all enjoyed this story**


	5. Imprisonment

**A/N: Okay here's another one for you! Remember Reviews get me paid (Not really, I just like to see what you think!)**

'Thoughts'

"Speech

&Parselmouth&

" _Spells_ "

 _Memories_

* * *

"...Harry" Tonks finished. It was dead silent, one would not be able to even hear the breathing of the others.

"Impossible," Snape snapped, having recovered and not believing it.

"While I have never underestimated Harry even with his... Disadvantage. I agree with Severus, he was with me until your message arrived," Dumbledore said affirmatively.

"I used a spell to identify the left over magical debris and with the amount left, it is impossible for it to be incorrect. Harry was there somehow," Tonks concluded, she too did not want to believe he did it but the evidence pointed to it.

"Harry wouldn't do that to all those people, even if he could he wouldn't have it in him to end a single life, he's too kind hearted for that. It wasn't him, the spell is wrong," Sirius said, having no doubt in his mind that it was someone else. Murmurs broke out, with everyone inputting their thoughts with those next to them.

"SILENCE!" Dumbledore's voice boomed throughout the room, they immediately stopped talking, not wanting to anger the powerful wizard. "There is nothing to even discuss, Harry was with me during the incident. It is impossible for him to truly be the culprit."

"I-I understand that now but we may have another problem," Tonks fidgeted, she still wasn't convinced but Dumbledore never led her astray so she was going to believe in him.

"What is it?"Mrs. Weasley spoke for the first time tonight.

"Fudge wants him arrested immediately, its likely their already on their way to Hogwarts," Tonks flinched at the angry faces looking at her.

"What?! You only tell us this now?!" Sirius shouted at the auror. Tonks only looked down not even bothering to retort.

"The lad is in trouble, we have to get him before the aurors do," Moody stood up, he understood the importance Harry had in the war, as did everyone else.

"If we do encounter the aurors and I have no doubt in my mind that we will, do not start a conflict with them," Dumbledore looked deep in thought then he continued, "No, I will alert you all if there is a need for you to attack, only observe until I do and if I do not give any indications, do not engage them," He lied as he saw they were ready to protest at his earlier statement, he was not going to give out any signal. He needed some of them to keep their membership in the order a secret for now."

"Fine, we've wasted enough time talking here," Sirius apparated out with a loud 'CRACK'. He was followed by the rest of the order, Dumbledore used the floo network however.

* * *

Harry slept peacefully on his bed. He wasn't dreaming, just floating in black nothingness. The day hadn't been the best for him but it definitely wasn't the worse so he was not going to complain. A commotion outside of his sleeping state started to wake him, his eyes slowly opened and he saw blurry figures shouting at each other.

"He was with me when the event occurred Fudge, this is not necessary," A voice he would recognize anywhere as Dumbledore's.

"No Dumbledore. It is very necessary, he would be lucky if I do not decide to have the dementors kiss him immediately," Fudge retorted in a voice that seemed grim but gleeful at the same time.

"I've always known that the brat was going dark, it was only a matter of time," Umbridge's voice was completely gleeful.

Harry sighed and took off his glasses and wiped the sleep from his eyes, it had been a habit for him to sleep with them lately. The voices went quiet with his movement, he opened his eyes and found ten wands pointed at him. The air was cold and because of what Fudge said, he knew dementors were near. He kept himself calm even with his whole body telling him to panic.

"What's this about?" Harry questioned, his voice was still sleepy.

"I think you know what this is about Potter," Fudge spat, did the boy think they were idiots?

"I don't think I would have asked if I knew," Harry retorted, he noticed Seamus, Ron and Neville were awake too now.

Fudge didn't bother to answer, "Aurors seize this murderer, he does not even deserve a trial,"

"Murderer? What in Merlin's name are you talking about?!" Harry protested, he was hit with a binding spell and was levitated by one of the Aurors.

"I'm sorry Harry, I cannot do anything as of now but I will get you out of this situation," _I hope_ , Dumbledore said sadly to Harry, all the order was present in the castle. Their plan to get Harry to 12 Grimmauld Place had failed because the ministry had already arrived when they apparated and floo'd here.

"Not even you can save him this time Dumbledore, I know you are also involved in this but alas there is no evidence against you but we will investigate further," Umbridge sneered at the Headmaster. The large group exited the dorm, some of the Gryffindor's were present in the common room as they had heard the commotion. They were surprised to see Harry bound and being levitated out of the room by the aurors and the Minister himself.

"Will any of you tell me what is going on!" The auror levitating him was compelled to let him go, there was genuine curiosity and anger in Harry's voice but she just said nothing and kept moving. They exited Gryffindor tower with Harry, who was getting more and more frustrated with the lack of information. He noticed Dumbledore was not with them anymore, he wanted to feel angry but he understood there was nothing he could do for him, at least not now.

Harry continued to struggle and eventually an auror stunned him, stopping his protests.

Dumbledore had stopped following the Aurors and made for his office. He couldn't help Harry as of now and he had to deliver the news to the students as he knew that some of them had their parents living in the no longer existent town. He didn't wish for them to find out from the daily profit, it wouldn't be respectful or appropriate. He entered his office and called for all the Heads of the houses.

Not so long after, Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall, Filius Flitwick and Pomona Sprout were present in his office, looking at him curiously "I ask that you wake all the students and move them into the great hall, I have an announcement to make," Dumbledore said to them. Pomona had a confused face as to what would be so important but Snape, McGonagall and Flitwick understood what the haste was about.

They all left to inform the students but McGonagall lingered for a bit, "I am not one for violence but we should have not allowed them to take the boy."

Dumbledore sighed, "It would not bode well for you and Severus to be seen acting against the ministry, I need you both here at Hogwarts."

"Everyone in the order was prepared to battle for him, Albus, even Severus. They know of his importance in the war. I am just worried that he will almost certainly be kissed," McGonagall frowned.

"Nothing wrong will happen to him Minerva. Please go alert the Gryffindors, I will join you shortly," Dumbledore tried to assure McGonagall, she looked at him with her lips in a thinner line than usual, showing her disapproval but she soon left without another word. She trusted Dumbledore but sometimes he was questionable.

* * *

Daphne angrily opened her eyes, ready to hex whoever was waking her up. She was having a very pleasant dream and now it was ruined, she wasn't very happy about it, not at all.

"It's me Daphne, there's a house assembly," Tracey said to her, moving her best friend's wand away from her face.

"What? Now?" She laid her head back onto her pillow, her blonde hair covering her face.

"Professor Snape called for it Daphne," Tracey sighed and turned to go to the common room.

"I'm up!" Daphne shouted, she got off her bed, threw on her dressing gown over her pajamas, and went down to the common room with Tracey. Everyone was already gathered and appeared to be waiting for them, Snape stood in front of everyone, his face looked calculating and stressed.

"The headmaster has an announcement to make, you will follow me to the great hall," Snape turned and left the room, everyone else following in two lines. You had to memorize your position from first year, it depended on your family and your blood status. Daphne stood second in her row and it saddened her to see Tracey near the end but she knew there was nothing she could do yet. 'Maybe when I have Potter around my finger, I can help her.'

On their way to the Great Hall they encountered the mess that were the Hufflepuffs. They were all scattered and grumbling about being woken up. The two houses walked to the hall side by side, when they entered the hall the Ravenclaws were already seated and talking to themselves. Only then did the Slytherins break their lines and sit with their preferred friends and Snape went up to sit at the head table.

"What do you think this is about?" Tracey asked.

"I have no idea," Daphne shrugged. The Gryffindors came in last and took their seat, Daphne noticed Harry's absence and frowned, "Potter isn't here," She whispered.

Tracey looked over to Gryffindor table, " Do you think he has something to do with this?" Tracey whispered back.

"I'm not sure," Daphne responded. Umbridge suddenly entered the hall and her smile was noticeably bigger than usual and sat at her usual place at the head table. Dumbledore followed but his expression looked far from happy and that's when Daphne knew it was about Harry. Dumbledore approached the podium and gestured for everyone to keep quiet.

"I apologize for disturbing your slumber but I have rather grim news," Dumbledore said with a sigh. Daphne's heart started to beat a little faster for reasons she was unaware of, "The town of Portree was attacked hours ago," he surveyed the students and found around twenty of them with worried expressions, "Sadly, the town was completely flattened, leaving no survivors."

There were gasps from the general student body and sobs from the students who had family in the area, murmurs broke out and the friends of those who lost family members tried to comfort their friends. Dumbledore let it happen, he knew what it was like to lose a loved one and so he let them have their moment, even though it was going to take far more than a moment.

"WHO WAS IT?!"A sixth year Ravenclaw shouted, holding her wand tightly and tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I-I cannot say," Dumbledore deadpanned.

This was followed with outrage from all the houses except Slytherin who looked rather calm but they all went silent when Dean Thomas shouted, "It was Potter wasn't it?"

Dumbledore sighed and closed his eyes but said nothing, his denial would be inefficient because the profit would paint Harry in the dark and everyone took this as a clear signal of what they thought was truth.

Daphne couldn't process what was happening, Potter? The same over-protective, caring and squib-like Gryffindor she was "dating" flattened an entire town? By himself? No, it couldn't be.

"That's impossible, the squib can barely cast a stunner. He couldn't have!" Draco was the one to break the neutrality of the Slytherins.

"Oh, but it is Malfoy heir," Umbridge stood up, earning glares from McGonagall, Flitwick and even Snape, "The ministry found his magical signature during their investigation. The Potter brat got his first taste of power tonight, too much power and it drove him into insanity, he was addicted to it and he wanted to show the world. His choice was to destroy Portree and he was sadly successful," She forged being sorrowful at the end but she was in-fact ecstatic.

"Where is he?!" A seventh year Hufflepuff shouted, the goblet in front of him started bending in an act of accidental magic due to his sadness and anger.

"He is in Azkaban by now, he surely will be kissed by the end of tomorrow," Umbridge didn't even bother hiding the happiness in her voice.

Daphne unknowingly held her knees hard, making her knuckles go white. Harry couldn't die, she needed him, they needed him... for the plan. She turned to Tracey and noticed she was looking under the table, following her gaze, Daphne saw her hands were holding her knees tightly, she let go and decided to lay them on the table. Tracey raised an eyebrow at her.

"The plan," Daphne whispered, to which Tracey nodded.

* * *

Harry's eyes snapped open. He narrowed his eyebrows at the floor he was sleeping on, the recent events played in his head and only then did he recognize the cold and unhappy environment he was in.

Azkaban.

"Enjoy your last day alive, you ended a lot of lives tonight and you deserve this. Dark wizard," An auror spat from outside the bars, leaving without Harry giving a retort.

Harry was confused, he had no idea what they were talking about but he apparently ended lives. He wasn't sure if the ministry was mental or if they just wanted to get rid of him. With his magical abilities, he wouldn't be able to end the life of a single rat, never mind a person. Realization dawned on him, he was going to be killed for a reason he wasn't even sure about.

"Idiot, right? I remember him, he made my life hell here. If I remember well, I think he was the first person I killed," A voice said from behind him, his head whipped back and he saw a man with messy raven hair, green eyes and a defined jaw line but what was most noticeable was the lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

"W-What, who-" Harry tried.

"Relax Harry, I will explain after this," The man walked closer to Harry who was sitting down and placed his index finger on his scar and said, " _Invitis rem perdere_ ," A bright white light flashed and Harry screamed from the pain coming from his scar but it stopped as soon as it started.

"Wh-What did you do to me?" Harry backed away from the man.

"Just helped you survive as I was helped before you," The man said vaguely.

"What? Who are you and why do you-" Harry tried.

"Look like you?" The man interrupted but continued "That is because I am you, Harry,"

"No, you're lying. There can't be two of me," Harry's back hit the wall. Fearing that the man was here to kill him.

"I'm not here to kill you, Harry. I am you from the future, I used a time turner to come back to this year," Older Harry explained.

"Now I know you're lying to me, if you were me from the future, you wouldn't be allowed to see me, it would break time," Harry scowled.

"Ahh Harry," Older Harry sighed "You truly do underestimate your power and knowledge. Magic flows through everything, time included. If you're powerful enough you can manipulate it into temporarily stopping but not for long. I can hold it for around five hours, in the time where I come from not even a second has passed and this anomaly is distracting time as it tries to fix the problem, leaving me able to travel without disturbance so long as the time is stopped from where I'm form. Which reminds me, I don't have long left."

Harry sighed, if he was here to kill him he would have done it already. So, he decided to see what the supposed older him had to say, "Why did you travel back?"

Older Harry sat crossed legged in front of him, "Well I came here to help you with the horcrux in your scar, get you into Azkaban and explain a few things about my time."

"Why would you want to get me into Azkaban?!" Harry shouted at his supposed older self.

"I can't tell you that, you have to figure it out for yourself," Older Harry concluded, " Aren't you going to ask me about your scar?"

Harry sighed and rubbed his temple, "No, I always figured there was something wrong with it but who's Horcrux was it?"

"Voldemort's," Older Harry said causing Harry to pale considerably but it made sense now, why it would hurt whenever he was near Voldemort.

"That's why it hurt earlier today wasn't it? Because you time travelled here?" Harry questioned. Older Harry smirked and nodded. " Do you think Voldemort felt it too?"

"He might have felt some pain, he's probably racking his brain trying to figure out why," Older Harry said.

"Oh," Harry frowned," What do you need to explain about your older time?"

Older Harry's expression went sour, " It started with..."

A memory began to play in his mind, one that Harry had never seen before.

 _Harry couldn't believe his ears, he didn't bother to hear any more of the conversation between his wife and her best friend. He found it hard to breath and his heart was pounding, the woman he gave his heart, soul and mind had been using him from the beginning but replaying everything that had happened, even from the beginning, he felt like an idiot because he didn't realize it sooner._

 _How she would snap at him, trying to avoid any constant physical contact, when she stopped seeing him for weeks after he said that he loved her, even his magic was telling him that something did not fit into place. All this time she was with him for political gain and to please her idiotic father, he was a pawn in a game he wanted nothing to do with._

 _"Daddy what's wrong?" Harry's head snapped towards the figure of his seven-year-old son. He looked almost exactly like Harry but had his mother's blue eyes._

 _Harry sniffed and wiped some of the tears that managed to escape, "Nothing," he then put on a fake smile, "Do you want to go get ice-cream?"_

 _The boy nodded enthusiastically and jumped into Harry's arms. Harry went to the living room and floo'd them to Diagon Alley._

Harry turned to his older self who he found next to him watching the memory with him.

"Your being vague about your wife's identity you know," Harry told his older self who chuckled.

"Well it is obvious, isn't it?" Older Harry smirked.

Harry thought for a bit but then nodded, " It is," then he smiled a bit "We had a son?"

"Yeah, we were pretty happy until the truth came out," Older Harry sighed.

"What did she do exactly?" Harry raised an eyebrow.

"It'll be clear soon, when we came back from getting ice-cream..."

 _Another memory began._

 _Harry and his son floo'd back into the Potter manors living room, they found Daphne and Tracey sitting on one of the sofa's. Daphne noticed their presence and smiled at them, "Hey," she said and stood and went up to hug them, their son who was still in Harry's arms returned it but Harry didn't move an inch and he glared at Tracey behind Daphne's back, who raised an eyebrow at him._

 _Daphne pulled back and noticed Harry's serious expression, "What's wrong?" concern overtaking her voice._

 _Harry put their son down, &go to your room, I'll come play with you later,& Harry hissed in parselmouth._

 _The boy nodded, &Is mommy in trouble?& he asked. Daphne looked between the two with narrowed eyebrows, she hated it when they talked like this so she couldn't understand._

 _& Yes,& Harry answered and their son left after hugging Daphne for the last time. Harry stared at Daphne for a moment, she looked genuinely worried, then again, she always did._

 _"I think I should go," Tracey tried to get up but she found herself immobile, she looked at Harry and found him looking at her. She sighed and stopped her attempts to get up, whatever happened involved her._

 _Harry turned to Daphne, he tried with all his being to hate her but he couldn't, he still loved her, "Did you ever love me?" his voice was cracked._

 _Daphne froze, her heartbeat accelerated and her fingers started shaking, "You overheard-"_

 _"Did you ever love me?" Harry asked again, he saw Tracey sigh and close her eyes behind Daphne._

 _"Harry, what you overheard was how I felt in the past. I'm sorry that-"_

 _"You're not answering my question Greengrass," Harry interrupted._

 _Daphne's heart broke at that, he called her by her maiden name instead of 'Potter'. She started to tear up, "Of course I did and I still do, with everything I have and more."_

 _"How do I know you're telling the truth? That this isn't more of you lies to keep me and keep feeding your father power using my name?"_

 _"I-" Daphne stopped she had no way to prove it to him, she did love him and meant every word she said to him. She didn't want to lose him but she couldn't think of anything, she looked at Tracey for help but her best friend was shaking her head with tears of her own._

 _"After everything, you can't even prove to me that your telling me the truth and that you love me? All the people I've killed for you, that's all you have to say?" Harry scowled._

 _"I can't prove it Harry but I really-"_

 _"Love me, yes," Harry interrupted, "If you truly did love me, you would have told me about it."_

 _"I-I was scared that you would get angry, I don't want to lose you," Daphne sobbed out._

 _"So, you would rather talk it out with Tracey than me?" Harry turned to Tracey, "Let me guess, you were in on this too?" Tracey said nothing and only looked at him. Harry sighed and turned back to Daphne, who was looking at him with the most pleading eyes he's ever seen from her. He shook his head and turned to the fireplace._

 _"Please don't go, let's talk about this," Daphne pleaded with him._

 _"Believe me this is far from over," Harry grabbed some floo powder, "I'll come back... soon." he then floo'd out._

Harry turned to his older self again.

"S-So she was using me?" Harry stuttered out, he felt betrayed but he couldn't bring himself to feel angry, his Daphne might be different.

"Yes. For you, she still is," Older Harry said sadly, "That was only the beginning Harry, the damnnation of the wizarding world started with that and do you want to know what was funny?" Harry nodded, "I knew."

"What?" Harry narrowed his eyebrows.

"Right now, you thought that your Daphne might be different. That was me, when I sat in your position and my future self was telling me all of this but I was too far gone to believe him," Older Harry said.

"Too far gone?" Harry questioned.

"You'll soon understand that what the Dursleys were doing to us hurt us in more ways than one. We never experienced love before her and Sirius, so we're more desperate for it and we grab it whenever we can. You're already in love with her, you just don't know it yet," Older Harry told his shocked younger self.

"Right," Harry hung his head. "We can't have anything good can we."

"No, we can't but Harry," Harry looked up at his older self, " You're going to need to play the fool and continue dating her."

"What?!" Harry shouted in outrage.

"Believe me, that's the last thing I want my younger self to do but it's for the betterment of everything," Older Harry sighed.

"What happened in your time?" Harry glared at older Harry.

"Things that could mean me being erased if I told you anymore than I already have," Older Harry said seriously.

Harry sighed, "Fine I... Things must have been bad from when you come from for you to come back. I'll... Do what you say."

"All I ask is that you continue your relationship with Daphne. During your time here, you'll begin to understand quite a lot, there isn't much I need to tell you" Older Harry said.

"I'm most likely going to be kissed tomorrow, I doubt I'll learn much," Harry said.

"I'm your future self-Harry, you're still alive. I've got your case handled already, Fudge is easy to control if you know how to push the right buttons. He will call in favors from lords and witches in Wizengamot, your sentence will be life in Azkaban. You'll live, just say you're guilty."

"Then how am I supposed to get out?" Harry asked, then a bright flash erupted from older Harry.

"Well, my time here is up. oh and Harry, Neville and Ron meant what they said," Then Older Harry disappeared, leaving Harry staring at the spot his older self sat

"What was that light?" A female auror asked from outside.

"I have no idea on what you're talking about," Harry said with a blank face.

* * *

Harry waited outside courtroom ten, escorted by dozens of aurors. He barely slept the night before and his mood was not the best, having people guide him with wands pointed to his head didn't help improve it, not at all. He was admittedly nervous, whatever would happen in the courtroom would prove that his supposed self was telling the truth and that he indeed was trying to help him.

Thanks to his future self, he realized that his feelings for Daphne were beyond 'liking' her and that he did love her but the thought of her using him would come into his mind and it would nullify anything positive emotion he felt towards her. The fact that he had to continue his relationship with her angered him greatly, even thinking about it now made his body vibrate.

He was suddenly pushed forward and he whipped his head back, " What?!" he snarled.

"Y-Y-You were called in," The male auror stuttered, causing Harry to raise an eyebrow.

'They have the power here, why would they be scared?' Harry questioned mentally, he shrugged and entered the courtroom.

The tiered seats had wizards and witches, who all had their focus on him with disgusted expressions except for Dumbledore's, who just smiled at Harry. Fudge sat front and center with a nervous expression, flanked by Umbridge who looked rather happy. Harry survey the room, still walking towards his hard-backed chair. He didn't feel as intimidated as he did the first time he was here before the year started at Hogwarts.

Harry sat down and almost immediately the chains on the arms of his seat came alive and bound him."Mr. Potter, you have been summoned to us on the case of the murder of all the residence of Portree and the destruction of the town itself. The consequences are life imprisonment in Azkaban or Being kissed by a dementor," Amelia Bones started.

' _That's what I did? The ministry must be mental considering they know I'm last in the power scores_ ,' Harry whispered to himself.

"How do you plead?" She asked him.

"Guilty," Harry said to everyone. Dumbledore looked like he was about to faint, while everyone looked taken back by his 'honesty.'

"Harry-" Dumbledore tried.

"No, professor," Harry gave the headmaster a calm look, trying to assure him he had everything under control.

"Then there is nothing to discuss, let the half-blood be kissed," A man shouted and only a few nodded, while most looked just as nervous as Fudge.

"You are aware of how the proceedings work here Lord Greengrass, I doubt we need to explain them," Fudge snapped at him, making Harry look at the minister with wide eyes, he also received a perplexed look from Umbridge next to him.

'Wait- Greengrass?' Harry snapped his head to the direction of the man, he had Daphne's blue eyes but his hair was dark, even more than Harry's. 'Seems like a lovely man,' Harry thought sarcastically.

"Would you like to request any witnesses that would prove your innocence?" Amelia asked.

"No as I already said, I'm guilty," Harry looked at her with a confused expression.

"It's only traditional to ask Mr. Potter," Amelia answered to his confused look, "Seeing as you admit to your crime of the demolition of Portree, we put your punishment to a vote. Those who believe Mr. Potter should be given the dementor's kiss raise your hand," She requested and only five hands rose, they looked at the other members of Wizengamot with utter surprise and they shifted nervously, " Those who believe he should have life imprisonment raise your hands," and everyone else raised their hands, even Fudge.

"Very well, Mr. Potter has been sentenced to life in Azkaban effective immediately. Aurors please escort him Azkaban as we discuss other issues," Amelia said and the binds released Harry as the auror grabbed him and escorted him out of the room, Harry gave one last smile to Dumbledore.

"You have no idea the hell you have brought upon yourselves," Dumbledore stood with a pale but angry face, once Harry left the room, "He was the only thing that could save us and you choose to send him to Azkaban?"

"Shut up you babbling old fool, no one wants to hear you spew your nonsense about the return of the Dark Lord," Umbridge spat.

"Am I really the fool?" Dumbledore asked Rhetorically, "How could he have been responsible for the happenings in Portree? Almost all of magical Britain is aware of how he is lacking in magical prowess and we have the scores to even prove this," Dumbledore glared at the Umbridge, "It has been long since the Wizengamot has checked the records, as you have stripped me of my position of Supreme Mugwump, I can only ask the minister of magic to allow us to view them," Dumbledore looked at Fudge.

Fudge, fearing this was also the request of the wizard that approached him yesterday accepted the request and aurors wearing gold colored robes brought in a parchment. The others stood by the door but the one holding the parchment went up and presented the parchment to Fudge, who took it and started reading it through, "It's still the same as all the times we have viewed, with Mr. Potter still almost last, only above squibs," he said.

"So, you tell me he was capable of last night's doings?" Dumbledore asked the entirety of Wizengamot.

"Mr. Potter has put himself in a guilty position, we cannot let him roam free when he himself has said he has done the crimes," Amelia said, she believed the proof to be sufficient to get him out but if he says he is guilty then there can only be punishment.

Dumbledore sighed and sat down on his seat, 'What are you planning Harry?' he thought as they continued to check the ranks of the students.

* * *

Cyrus Greengrass floo'd into Greengrass manor, his whole family was gathered and talking in the living room. Hogwarts was closed for the of the term to honor the parents of the students who died in Portree so Daphne and Astoria had returned that morning. He kissed his wife and sat down next to her with a sigh.

"How did the trial of the boy go?" His wife, Cassandra Greengrass asked, Astoria and Daphne looked at him expectantly.

"He admitted to doing the deed himself," He sneered, earning wide eyes from everyone, " We checked the power records today, he was still near last only above squibs," he chuckled a bit at the end, "I'm not sure how he did it but he did," Then he turned to his daughters, " You two are growing well, Daphne, your ranked eight but she's only in fifth year and Astoria your ranked fourteen and your only in fourth. I'm proud of you two."

"What was Potter's sentencing?" Daphne asked ignoring her father's praise, Cassandra noticed and frowned.

"Life in Azkaban, lucky half-blood. I'm surprised but I'm sure Dumbledore pulled some strings to not get him kissed," Cyrus concluded.

"Oh," was all Daphne said before she got out and fast walked out of the room. Cassandra glared at Astoria, who got the point and stood up, running in Daphne's direction.

"What's wrong Daph?" Astoria asked from behind Daphne, who stopped, lifted her hand and appeared to be wiping something off her face.

"Nothing why?" Daphne turned to her.

"You stormed out of the room," Astoria raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, I'm fine don't worry," Daphne said, she turned and rushed to her room, leaving Astoria shouting her name.

She closed and locked the door. She got onto her bed and held her pillow tightly, "What did you do to me Harry," She whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks.

* * *

 **A/N: Thus ends the chapter, I will post the next as soon as can. Like always.**

 ** _Invitis rem perdere- Destroy unwanted entity._**

 **Review, tell me what I'm doing wrong and give suggestions.**

 **B/N: Chapter 1 has been revised, please reread it. The rest of the chapters will soon be revised and should be done soon. I hope everyone has enjoyed this chapter. -Kamon**


	6. Giants

A/N: Sorry for the late chapter. I'm not gonna write their accents(You'll understand in the story)

 _#Giants language#_

* * *

Lucius Malfoy and Nott Sr. apparated just outside Riddle House at Little Hangleton, they walked with haste towards the Dark Lord's throne room. They had been called hours ago, but with the emergency Wizengamot meeting for the trial of Harry Potter, they were unable to respond to their master's call and the Dark Lord was unaware of the meeting, so he was sure to be angry.

They received looks from some of the members of Voldemort's inner circle, proving that their lord was truly displeased. They both reached the doors of the throne room, took a breath and opened the doors.

"My Lord," Lucius Malfoy and Nott. Senior said in unison, kneeling a distance away from Voldemort's throne. Bellatrix stood next to Voldemort with a smirk on her face.

"I called for you both hours ago," Voldemort's said in a calm voice, making them both pale.

"My Lord, we apo-"

 _"Crucio!"_ Voldemort interrupted Notts apology, moving to stand in front of him. Nott screamed in pain, his body was jerking all over the floor and he felt like his head was going to explode from the agony. It was the most intense he had ever been at the end of and possibly the longest he had been held by it.

"Lucius, perhaps you can give me some insight of your where abouts," Voldemort turned to Malfoy, ending the cruciatus curse on a shaking Nott.

"My Lord, there was an emergency Wizengamot meeting called by Fudge this morning. It required immediate attendance, therefore we could not alert you of it," Lucius said, hoping not to be tortured.

The Dark Lord stared at him for a second, before turning and walking swiftly to his throne. He sat down then regarded him again, "What was so important that the fool could not schedule it?" Voldemort questioned.

"The boy my lord, Potter," Lucius answered

"What could Potty have done?" Bellatrix asked in interest, this peeked Voldemort's interest also, what could have Harry Potter possibly done?

"It is apparent that they believe he was the one that destroyed the town of Portree yesterday," Lucius said, Nott had gone back to kneeling position next to him, but he was still shaking.

Voldemort and Bellatrix started cackling loudly, which was common for Bellatrix but was completely uncommon for Voldemort. He would chuckle sometimes, but he wouldn't ever outright laugh like this, the two Death Eaters mouths dropped.

"He is even more of a fool than I thought, why would they possibly believe that the squib was the one that did it?" Voldemort asked after calming down, he could see the surprise of his laughter on their faces.

"His magical signature was found on the site," Nott answered this time.

"Then the ministry must be weaker than I thought. It is not possible that it was Potter," Voldemort said certainly, "Even so, what was his sentencing? Surely he is going to be kissed."

"Most of the Wizengamot voted on a life sentencing in Azkaban, even Fudge," Lucius told the Dark Lord.

"Hmm, I would think that Fudge would want him dead, but it matters not," Voldemort's said to his followers.

"My Lord, do you not think we should go kill the boy before Dumbledore breaks him out?" Bellatrix questioned from next to him.

"The old fool wouldn't dare go against the ministry so it would be a waste of time. What use is the boy, it would be impossible for him to defeat me even with the supposed prophecy," The Dark Lord turned to her.

"My Lord if I may suggest?" Lucius started, and Voldemort head snapped to him and gestured for him to continue, "The prophecy could have referred to the Longbottom boy or the Potter brat."

"What are you getting at Lucius?" Voldemort frowned.

"While we have not seen the contents of the prophecy, we know it refers to a boy having the power to defeat you. Severus suggested that it spoke of Potter or the Longbottom boy as they were one's who were born at the end of July. It is impossible for Potter to be the one to defeat you but what of Longbottom?" Lucius suggested, he looked up to see the Dark Lord's reaction and he was not disappointed.

Voldemort was genuinely shaken; how did he not even think of this? It made sense now, why the one he thought was supposed to defeat him was so weak, it was because it wasn't the right boy. He was observing the wrong person, he could have left a powerful enemy to grow while he focused on a weak one.

"Get Out! All of you!" Voldemort shouted, and all those present in the room left quickly.

* * *

Hagrid and Maxime, at Dumbledore's request, had travelled to the giant's colony serving as an envoy to try and secure the giants allegiance to the light and not Voldemort and his death eaters. They knew of the giant's leanings during the first war, they had chosen to join Voldemort and were responsible for some of the most atrocious killings. Their magic resistant skin made it near impossible to kill them, although they did have weak spots such as their eyes but being accurate enough to hit them was another near impossible feat, what with a large amount of death eaters coming towards you and so they had lost many lives because of this.

They both travelled to a tribe north-east of the capital city of Belarus, Minsk, and after a month of trekking, he found them. They both climbed a boulder, so they could observe them, they all slept on the ground, in a clearing of the valley surrounded by large stone and boulders, with a fire in the middle.

"It's best we let them be, we will talk to the Gurg tomorrow. Let's set up camp," Hagrid turned to Olympe Maxime, who nodded and climbed down the boulder, Hagrid following suit. When they touch the ground, they moved a fair distance away from the giant's grounds, so not to alert any of giants if one of them woke before they did. Olympe leaned on a tree, watching Hagrid set up the tent, who blushed under the gaze.

After Hagrid had set up the tent, he set down the Gubraithian fire or better known as the everlasting fire in front of the tent. The valley the giants resided on was cold and snowy, so Dumbledore worked out that this would be a viable gift to them and had conjured the fire for them to gift the giants.

"Do you think they will agree to join us?" Maxime question Hagrid as they entered the Magical tent.

"It would be awfully bad if they didn't, they killed a lot of people in the first war," Hagrid answered, sitting down on one of the chairs, "I'm sure they'll hear us out, we brought all these gifts."

"Remember they're considered terribly violent," Maxime frowned at him Hagrid, he seemed to confident for her liking.

"They're just misunderstood creatures, they're calm if you show that you mean no harm," Hagrid said.

"We should still be careful," Maxime stood up and kissed him on the cheek, bending her tall frame, " I'm exhausted, I'm going to go sleep. Goodnight."

"Sleep tight," Hagrid said to her retreating form. He soon stood up and went to his room in the tent, he was asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.

They awoke early the next morning, eager to get the job done and return to the warmth of their homes. They gathered everything in their camp and got back to the track they used yesterday to the giant's grounds. When they reached the entrance of their clearing, the giants near it already looked like they wanted to attack them, but they put up their hand in a surrendering gesture.

"What do you want?" One of the giants that could speak English asked.

"We come to offer a gift to the Gurg of the Giants," Hagrid answered.

The giant had a smile on his face, giants loved to be given gifts. He told Hagrid and Maxime to Follow him and led them towards the center of the clearing. They received looks from the giants on the way there but ignored them all as to not impose conflict on the violent creatures. When they reached the center of the clearing, Karkus sat next to the fire and directly at them.

"Greetings," Maxime spoke, believing her persuasion skills better than Hagrid's.

Karkus turned to the giant who could speak English, _#Translate what they say to me#_

 _#She said greetings#_ the giant told his Gurg.

 _#What do they want?#_ Karkus got to the point.

"What do you want?" the giants turned to the two half-giants.

"We come to seek your aid in the coming war against Voldemort," Maxime answered.

 _#Why would we want to help you?#_ Karkus asked after it was translated, he was genuinely curious and remembered the Dark Lord.

"Your giants are great and powerful, we need your aid in ending the war as soon possible. We come bearing gifts," Maxime said to giant, after what the giant said was translated. Hagrid took this as the cue to offer the everlasting fire in front of the snowy ground of Karkus, " The flames will never cease, it will warm you forever," Maxima continued.

The giant translated this to Karkus, who smiled broadly and stood up, he took the flames and place them in the center of the clearing. His smile widened when he felt the heat of the fire. He turned back to the other giant, so he could translate, _#I am grateful for the gift, I have considered their request and we will help them in their war#_

The giant turned to the half-giants, " He agrees to join your war and aid you in the war,"

The two Half-giants smiled and did a respectful bow. Maxime pulled out a galleon and her wand, "Portus" she put the portkeyed galleon back into her pocket, " Thank you for your time," then they both bowed again after Karkus nodded.

They made it out of the clearing and then Hagrid spoke, "That was brilliant, we have the Giants help now."

"We do," Maxime grinned widely.

"Another step closer to winning the coming war. The ministry will throw a fit from us associating with giants, I swear Fudge will get everyone killed," Hagrid frowned, he wondered what has happened in his absence.

"He will believe soon, but then it might be too late," Maxime said to Hagrid.

* * *

Days before Christmas, Walden Macnair and two Death Eaters walked towards Voldemort's throne room. They knew that there was a high chance of them losing their lives tonight, with the news they held and their lord's particular bad mood it was obvious, but they hoped the good news they also held would appease him, but they had failed to complete the most important part of their journey.

He pushed the doors open and entered the room, followed by the death eaters. They kneeled a distance away from his throne.

"This better be good Walden," Voldemort narrowed his eyes.

"My Lord, we managed to convince the Werewolves and Vampires to join us," Walder told the news.

"That is good news. What of the giants?" Voldemort questioned.

"My Lord... the lot of them have joined Dumbledore, a Half-giant managed to convince Karkus to join them, He had been there weeks before we arrived but some of them have defied Karkus and joined us," Walder said.

"WHAT? I too sent you out weeks ago," Voldemort scowled

"We were delayed my-"

 _"AVADA KEDAVRA!"_ Voldemort shrieked, the killing curse collided with Walder's head, blasting him back meters away and killing him instantly. He turned his attention to the whimpering death eaters, _"Confringo!"_ he hit both of them with a blasting curse, making their upper bodies explode, spilling blood onto the floor.

"Clean this up," Voldemort said to nearby the nearby Death Eaters, who quickly acted with cleaning charms and taking Walder's and the remains of the Death Eaters bodies away.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore, Remus and Tonks walked on the path of Diagon alley. There was tension in the order, Sirius was in depression and the other members of the order were fearful. They all knew of the prophecy and that Harry was somehow meant to defeat the Dark Lord but with Harry being in Azkaban, they thought that there was no winning coming war.

Dumbledore had told them of what Harry did during his trial and they all were unsure as to why he would do that, but Dumbledore had figured out that he might have a plan to somehow break out when he felt necessary. He couldn't retrieve Harry's wand before the ministry destroyed it and they had travelled to Diagon alley, so they could ask Ollivander to make another one.

They entered the empty store, it was always empty once the year at Hogwarts started, with the first years having already collected their wands no one was in unless someone had broken their wand. Ollivander came out of the back of the shop when he heard the bell of the door, "Ah Albus, I was expecting you once I heard of Mr. Potters sentencing and their evil deed of destroying his wand," Ollivander smiled but scowled at the end.

"Indeed, my old friend, it was quite unfortunate," Dumbledore pulled out a yellow feather from his sleeve and placed it on the counter.

Ollivander inspected it and then smiled, " You know how I enjoy making difficult wands but there might be something you might find as a problem."

"What could that be Garrick?" Dumbledore frowned at him.

"I cannot make a wand made of Holly wood with this phoenix feather," Ollivander stated, "It would be dramatically weakened, I can only make it out of Yew wood for it to be at its full potential."

Dumbledore's eyes widened, "That would make it-"

"No Albus, no two wands are the same. It will be similar to Tom Riddle's, but it won't be the same. It might not even choose Mr. Potter upon his return, it may also look similar," Ollivander said to the headmaster. Remus exchanged a look with Tonks, who shrugged.

Dumbledore sighed, "We know how special he is, like Tom, there can only be one core that will choose him, regardless of the wood. It won't be a problem Garrick," He finished

"Wonderful," Ollivander grinned widely and clapped his hands together then gently took the feather off the counter, " I will return in an hour," he said then went to the back to begin the wand making.

"What was that about the wand wood Dumbledore?" Tonks questioned.

"Harry's wand, it may look exactly like the Dark Lord's," Dumbledore stated a bit grimly, he hoped it did not. Too many have become familiar with the wand that had ended the lives of their loved ones and he didn't want Harry to be remembered to have the same wand.

Tonks frowned, she was wary of Harry's case. She still felt like Harry was the one to somehow destroyed the town and killed those people. It wasn't that she wanted to, but her intuition told her it was him.

Remus wasn't fazed, believing the son of his best friend wouldn't become like that monster, "It won't matter, Harry would never become like him."

"People won't see it like that, they already believe him to be the destroyer of Portree. What happens when they see him with a wand that looks exactly like the Dark Lord that has cause so many deaths?" Dumbledore looked at Remus. Remus didn't retort but just looked down at his feet, "We know Harry isn't like that, but others don't."

"Then why would he say he was guilty?" Tonks questioned, Dumbledore turned to her and looked her in the eye. He used Passive Occlumency and it proved a suspicion he had that still she thought Harry was guilty.

"He may have some sort of plan to escape Azkaban when he sees fit, I too am unsure of his doings, but Harry is smart. He has a plan," Dumbledore concluded, he trusted Harry but not everyone would. Tonks looked at him for a few seconds, but she nodded.

The three waited in silence after that, each occupying themselves with their own thoughts. Finally, Ollivander exited the back of the shop, with a greyish-white wand in a case and to Dumbledore's displeasure it looked nearly exactly like Voldemort's wand, only lacking the tooth like hook at the tip of it, a small difference and it still could easily be mistaken as Voldemort's

"I did say it may look similar," Ollivander said to Dumbledore, noticing his displeased look.

"It's not a problem Garrick. How much will it cost?" Dumbledore questioned, still glancing at the wand.

"No, it won't cost anything. I know Mr. Potter is going to need it," Ollivander presented the wand to Dumbledore, who took it hesitantly.

"Thank you, old friend," Dumbledore smiled and with a goodbye they left the shop Dumbledore held a frowned, they rest of the order weren't going to appreciate its appearance, "I ask that we keep the wands appearance to ourselves," he said to his companions.

"I don't get it, why would anyone care about how a wand looks?" Tonks questioned.

"Anyone who was involved in the first war would notice the appearance of the wand," Remus answered for Dumbledore, "There isn't a wand anyone would think more dangerous than the Dark Lord's, which just so happens to look like that one," he gestured to the wand case.

"Oh," Tonks said in understanding, "Do you think Harry will mind?"

"Not at all, but he will most likely hate the attention he will receive," Dumbledore retorted, "I just hope he knows how to get out of Azkaban, everything we've worked for will be in vain otherwise."

* * *

Two days before Christmas eve, Daphne sat near the pond of Greengrass manor. She was exactly 11 weeks pregnant and she was yet to tell her parents. Astoria had been reminding her to do it every day, but she would just wave it off. She had no idea on how she was going to even begin on explaining it to them, especially considering where Potter currently was, leaving her to have to do it but there was still hope.

She used a charm to hide the visibility, although still small you could still see it and her magic was already having problems, her spells would be either overpowered or underpowered. This usually happens 5 months into the pregnancy or maybe later, depending on the power the baby would happen but it happening to her this early suggested that the baby was going to be powerful.

"Looking lonely there Daph," someone said from behind her, she turned around and saw Tracey and Blaise standing there smiling at her.

"Just not used to having breaks last this long. You run out of things to do eventually," Daphne smiled at them, they sat next to her with Blaise on her left and Tracey on her right.

"Can't argue with that," Tracey said to her, "How has it been so far?"

"Worrying to say the least. It hasn't been the best really," Daphne sighed.

"I can understand why," Blaise said, the trio haven't talked since the closing of Hogwarts.

"Potter in Azkaban, that's something you would never think could happen. Did you read that he admitted to doing it himself?" Tracey looked at Daphne.

"Yeah, my father told me as soon as he got back from Wizengamot the day of his imprisonment," Daphne answered.

"It's obvious he's lying," Blaise voiced

Daphne turned to him and frowned, "Why would he lie about that?"

"It's not possible that he could have done that kind of magic, maybe Dumbledore and the Dark Lord but not him, especially with his condition. As to why he would lie, I don't know," Blaise answered, "He is going to spend his life in Azkaban, he and Dumbledore must have some sort of plan."

"What do you think about Dumbledore meant by saying that Potter was the only one that could save us?" Tracey questioned them both.

"I think it has something to do with the Dark Lord," Daphne replied, they both looked at her strangely, "Hey, I'm only speculating here, it's the only obvious meaning."

"Maybe," Blaise they sat in silence admiring the fish in the pond.

"What are you going to do Daphne?" Tracey broke the silence.

Daphne sighed, "I don't know Tracey, there aren't many options really. There is one I am leaning to, but it's insane."

"What is it?" Tracey raised an eyebrow, Daphne turned to look at Blaise. At first Tracey tilted her head and Blaise frowned in confusion but then, "Ohhh no Daphne, that is too crazy, can you imagine-"

"It's the only thing I've got now Tracey," Daphne sighed

"What are you talking about?" Blaise asked still confused.

"Daphne wants you to act as the baby's father," Tracey told him.

His eyes widened before narrowing and he looked down, "It's going to be hard to keep that lie up after it's born you know?"

"You can't be actually considering this Blaise?!" Tracey shrieked, "What happens if Potter somehow gets out of Azkaban? You'll have more than one war to worry about and he has Dumbledore on his side, I don't like your odds."

Blaise sighed, Daphne was just watching the pond silently, "I'm going to do it only to help Daphne Tracey and maybe to gain my house some influence. Potter won't get out of Azkaban," Blaise said to Tracey, making Daphne turn to him.

"This isn't going to end well for you two. You've seen how Potter is like when he's angry, he'll go ballistic if he ever finds out about this," Tracey shook her head.

Daphne sighed, she knew Tracey was right, but she didn't have a choice, "We should announce it during Christmas, when all three of our families meet here."

Tracey shook her head, "Okay Daph, if you're sure."

"Alright with me," Blaise shrugged.

They talked hours after that, but Tracey and Blaise left the manor when it was almost dark. Daphne went back to her room, and she went to lay on her bed facing the ceiling. She was surprised Blaise accepted it so easily, but he did once say that he would do anything to grow the Zabini's power and influence. Tracey's words also found their way to her head, what if Harry did get out of Azkaban and find out about this?

She was sure the entire light sided faction would be against them, Daphne sighed turned to the side. She had no idea what she was getting herself into, a knock interrupted her train of thoughts, "Come in." Astoria walked in, after closing the door behind her she sat at the edge of Daphne's bed.

"So, did you tell them yet?" Astoria bit her lip. Daphne shook her head, "Why not?"

"I'm going to tell them on Christmas," Daphne answered.

"But that's when Grandpa will be here, don't you think he would be angry that its Potter's?" Astoria gave her a confused look.

"He would end up finding out anyway even if I told mum and father before then," Daphne answered.

"Well, if you're sure Daph, then I'm with you," Astoria smiled.

"Thanks Tori," Daphne smiled back.

Christmas eve came and the decorations for the following day were put in place, the food menu was also given to the House elves. Daphne made sure to not use magic whenever she was near her parents so not to be asked questions or raise suspicions. Daphne had noticed her mother was keeping an eye on her, so she decided to be more careful even if they were going to find out only the next day.

On the day of Christmas, the Davies and Zabini families were also present at the manor, Tracey and her mum, dad and five of her cousins were present and only Blaise and his mother was there. Daphne had four cousins, her aunt and uncle and both of her grandparents there. The adults were inside the Manor but the teens all sat outside, it was nearing dinner time and it was almost dark.

Daphne decided she was going to tell everyone during the dinner proceedings and Blaise agreed to it.

"Are you nervous?" Tracey whispered from next to her.

"Yeah, this is too much," Daphne whispered back.

"You could just be honest," Tracey suggested.

"I can't Tracey, not anymore," Daphne sighed, she didn't want to do it like this, "I think it's time for dinner, we should go inside," Daphne shouted to her cousins and Blaise.

They all walked back into the manor, "Perfect timing," Cassandra Greengrass said to the group of teens. They all sat down on chair, Blaise sat next to her. The table was long, with Cyrus Greengrass sitting on the head chair and Samuel Greengrass, her grandfather, sitting on the other. The food suddenly appeared, and everyone said, "Merry Christmas," in unison before they started eating.

Daphne looked at her food and felt her appetite disappear, she didn't feel hungry. She pushed away her plate and leaned back on her chair.

"Why aren't you eating?" Claire, Tracey's cousin asked from next to her.

"I'm not Hungry," Daphne answered, she noticed her mother's attention was also on her. Claire nodded and went back to eating, Dinner was a quiet affair no one said anything except from the whispers of her cousins.

When everyone was finished, Daphne took quick breaths then stood up, "I have something important to say," this got everyone's attention and it only made her even more nervous. She opened her mouth once, but no sound came out. After a glance around at the rest of the table, and seeing a slight not of support from her mother, Daphne spoke in a near whisper…

"I'm pregnant."

* * *

 **A/N:Sorry for the late update again.**

 **Review please.**

 **B/N: I hope you have enjoyed this chapter. There is more to come.**

 **-Kamon**


	7. Sorrow

**A/N:Here's another one! Exams are gonna in full swing soon so uploads will be on hold, I'll make sure to alert you guys once they start though.**

 **Big thanks to shinykamon for being the beta for this chapter and the ones before. You're awesome!**

* * *

Silence.

You could hear a pin drop, everyone was still and did nothing but look at her and it only served to increase her nerves. Daphne expected her mother to be the first one to react but Cassandra said nothing. The first one to have some sort of reaction was her father.

"No, that's impossible," Cyrus denied, closing his eyes and shaking his head.

"No it's not and you know that," Cassandra narrowed her eyebrows at her husband, she could see her daughter was nervous but how could he not?

"I raised her-"

"Not now with that!" Cassandra snapped at Cyrus, who sighed and stopped talking. The others in the room remained silent, feeling themselves irrelevant to the situation. Cassandra turned to her daughter, "Dap- I- Since when have you known?" she managed to get out

"Ten weeks," Daphne had tears brimming on her eyes," I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, I was...scared," the tears were openly flowing now. She didn't know how her mother got across the table but almost instantaneously she had pulled her up into a tight hug, which she melted into and openly sobbed.

"You don't need to apologize Daphne, I understand how it's like," Cassandra comforted her daughter. Daphne then felt another pair of arms hesitantly wrap around her and judging by the how the height surpassed hers more than her mothers, she knew it was her father. She was surprised that when she looked up, he was actually smiling, he wasn't one to openly show affection and everyone in the room knew it.

Astoria was grinning from ear to ear, she was happy that her sister had finally told them. It would make things a lot easier for Daphne, ' Wait till they hear who the father is,' she sighed mentally. Daphne stopped sobbing not long after and she sat back down and so did her parents.

"How far along are you?" Her mother asked.

"Almost twelve weeks," Daphne responded, no longer nervous, "It's why I didn't use magic around you."

"You don't need to worry about using magic, it's only a problem around five months in, maybe four at most," Cyrus said, he didn't care whether his father would disapprove of it. He was the head of the Greengrass' now, not him.

"I know that but my magic is giving me problems now," Daphne said. The adults stared at her with wide eyes, while the teens, who didn't know what it meant, looked at the adults confused.

"Th- That's not possible," Samuel stuttered.

"Then is something wrong with the baby? With me?" Daphne sounded panicked.

"No Daphne, it's just... Have you read about when Dumbledore's mother started having problems with her magic when she carried him?" Cassandra asked her daughter, who shook her head, "Fourteen weeks, just a little over three months. How early it happens depends on how powerful the baby could be and theoretically, it's possible yours could top him. "

Cassandra's statement was followed by silence, "That's incredible," Daphne whispered, she found it hard to believe, with Harry being the father and his magical abilities being nearly non-existant, anyone would have but she figured it could have come from her side.

"Daphne," Her father's voice got dangerously low and his eyebrows were narrowed.

"Father?" Daphne responded, her nerves returning again.

"Who's the father?" He looked her in the eye and she shifted nervously.

"I-" She gulped, this felt wrong, incredibly wrong but she could still see no alternative, no matter how supporting her father was before, she knew if he found out who the real father was, he would throw a massive fit and so would her Grandfather. She glanced at Blaise, who looked like he might have been regretting it.

"I-Its m-me Lord Greengrass," Every eye turned to Blaise, who sat frozen. Cyrus eyed him crucially, as if he were someone he hated deeply and Blaise felt like it was like that. Blaise looked to his mother, he couldn't tell if she angry or not but she did look disappointed. She always did want to know what was going on in his life and he felt like this was more of that than anything.

Bang!

They all turned to Astoria, who hit her head on the dining table "Are you okay Tori?" her mother questioned with concern.

"I'm fine mum, just perfect," she responded and lifted her head to look at Daphne.

Cassandra nodded and turned back to Daphne, she had never seen her and Blaise acting even close to being in a relationship, at least one of this sort. She had never even heard him being discussed to be in a relationship with Daphne when she listened in on her daughter's conversations with Tracey.

It didn't add up.

However a name that she did hear often today since they arrived was...

Potter.

Cassandras eyes widened and she let out a small squeal, earning her attention from those near. It couldn't be, it was the first time she heard them talk about him but Daphne's reaction about him being sentenced to Azkaban made sense now.

"I can't say I'm truly surprised," Cyrus finally spoke, turning back to Daphne, "He is the only boy you willingly spends time with, it comes as no surprise that you two have something going on."

"Y-Yes," Blaise agreed, getting another stare from Cyrus.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Mrs. Zabini finally questioned her son.

"Daphne was scared and I didn't want to rush her into telling you," Blaise lied smoothly, deciding that since he already lied to the table, he may as well go the distance. His mother remained silent and only stared at him, as did the rest of the room.

"What-now?" Daphne finally questioned.

"Me and you can talk about everything later, for now let's go back to enjoying dinner," Cassandra said, losing her surprised face and getting nods in return. The dinner passed with fair speed after that, with Daphne getting asked about what her first time was like by her cousins, which she had to lie about and make up something more of romantic. She noticed that her mother was glancing at her often and Astoria was glaring at her, not even bothering to hide her disapproval.

When dinner was finished Blaise left with his mother, who preferred to have a conversation with him alone and so did Tracey with her family, with a final goodbye to her friends, Daphne made for room. She couldn't shake the feeling that what she did was beyond wrong, she understood it was but it felt like she had made a big mistake, even more than she felt for her many mistakes. She knew if Dumbledore were to ever find out about this, it wouldn't end well for any of them, at all. She couldn't imagine even what Harry would do.

Daphne entered her room and found her mother waiting for her, she closed the door and walked up to her, "Mum?" Her mother looked at her for a second then walked past her to the door, setting up silencing wards.

"You need to learn how to do that," Cassandra said to her once she finished the ward.

"I know how," Daphne frowned at her.

"Then why don't you use them when you have conversations with Tracey?" Cassandra folded her arms.

"I- How do you know that we don't?" Daphne questioned.

"I listen in on you sometimes, like today," Cassandra narrowed her eyebrows.

"Why would you-... How much did you hear?" Daphne fidgeted nervously.

"Nothing of importance really but you spoke quite a lot about Potter and if my knowledge serves me well, only one Potter exists. So I was just curious as to why you speak so much of him?" Cassandra looked into her eyes.

"We just found it interesting that he admitted himself guilty for what happened to Portree," Daphne lied, steeling herself.

"Daphne, I want you to be honest with me. Are you sure that's why?" Cassandra intensified her stare. Daphne just nodded weakly, avoiding eye contact and Cassandra sighed, "I hope you aren't lying Daphne, it can complicate matters. Now, we have to talk about the baby, you're still on your first trimester so there's a higher chances that things could go wrong, we should go St. Mungo's for a checkup as soon as tomorrow."

"You mean there could be something wrong and I wouldn't know it?" Daphne's eyes widened and her heartbeat accelerated.

"It's a possibility, that's why you should have told at least me, earlier. Calm down sweetie, I'm sure you would have felt it if something was wrong, but how do you feel?" Cassandra asked.

"I feel okay, I just want to eat more," Daphne answered.

"But you barely touched dinner today," She looked at her oddly.

"I ate quite a bit of chocolate frogs earlier," Daphne blushed.

"Cravings?" Cassandra asked and Daphne nodded, "You should read some baby books. I am going to help you and I'm sure Mrs. Zabini will help too but you should learn to do most of the things yourself and so should Blaise. You don't have to worry about it much now, it's still early but you should look into it later."

"I-Thanks mum," Daphne smiled and received a hug in return, once they separated Cassandra had eyes full of tears, "What's wrong?" Daphne asked in a concerned voice.

"You're growing up," She wiped some of the tears away, "And I don't think you're going to need me after this." She gestured to Daphne's stomach.

"Of course I'm going to need you, If not me then your grandson will," She said, remembering when Harry said they would have a son, she wouldn't admit to herself but she missed him.

"How do you know you're going to have a boy?" Cassandra tiled her head.

"Call it intuition."

* * *

11 January 1996 Lord Voldemort sat on his throne in front of his gathered inner circle, he was being informed of the progress his servants were having with recruiting others to join the Death Eater ranks and he was disappointed with what he was being told, their numbers were growing steadily but they were not growing fast enough, he wanted everything to be ready should he decide to make his return public.

The Dark Lord knew that Dumbledore knew that he would make his return one day and so he figured by now that that the order had somewhat grown in numbers, even he never knew the exact numbers in which Dumbledore had in his disposal during the first war but that they were nowhere near the number of Death Eaters he had but something was different this time.

Dumbledore had giants this time.

The large beasts were one of the most hardest to kill of magical creatures, after Dragons and while Voldemort knew he could take on a number of them alone, the same couldn't be said for his Death Eaters, some of them simply lacked the skill to accurately hit their vulnerable spots with a spell in a battle situation or the power needed to pierce their magic resistant skin. Many would think using the Killing Curse on them would work and it possibly could depending on the caster but the ministry in their banning of the unforgivables had stopped anyone from testing it.

They did have an advantage, perhaps the only thing that could prove useful against the giants. The Vampires. The blood sucking beings were agile and fast, they could easily out maneuver the slow movements of the giants but if the light had their wizards to support them, the vampires too would find it difficult to fight them, which is why the numbers were as important as ever now.

"The numbers are growing far too slowly," Fenrir Greyback, the newly announced leader of the werewolf army said impatiently. Getting the title after killing the old leader, who had wanted to break away from serving the Dark Lord.

"I concur my friend, it's wearing on my patients," Voldemort said as Nagini slithered next to his throne, receiving strokes on her head from her master.

"What do you suggest my lord?" Augustus Rookwood questioned.

"We send out more that are in our ranks to recruit others," Voldemort concluded.

"But my lord, there are only those who are guarding the house," Rodolphus Lestrange protested.

Voldemort narrowed his eyes at him, "Do you think I am incapable of protecting myself?"

"I-I-I do n-not my lord," Rodolphus stuttered out

"Then do as I say, go now. Rally them and send them out," Voldemort told the man, who walked with haste out of the room, "Lucius," He turned to the blond.

"Yes my lord?" Lucius answered the call.

"I asked you to gather information on the Longbottom boy, what do you have of him?" Voldemort questioned seriously, he was bothered by this but he was far from fearing the boy.

"According to Draco, at Hogwarts he is just above average at best," Lucius said.

"Is his power to be considered a threat?" Voldemort asked in none caring manner so they do not confuse him as frightened.

"No my lord, there is a considerable gap between him and Potter, but he does not possess anything special," Lucius replied.

Voldemort shook his head, none of the boys of the prophecy possessed the power to defeat him but he conceded that he still needed to be wary of Longbottom, he had most likely yet to go through magical maturity, "Tell Draco to keep an eye on him when he returns to Hogwarts tomorrow."

"Yes my lord."

* * *

"Since we weren't able to have the defense meeting because of the extended break, do you think would could have it this term?" Neville questioned as he sat in a compartment with Ron, Hermione, Seamus, Ginny and Dean.

"I don't see why not, what with Umbridge returning for another term," Hermione replied," And I've read on quite a bit of spell during the break, I think some of them would come in handy in duel. I think we could have it our first one on Friday" She continued.

"That's brilliant, I don't think I could handle any more of the useless book she and the ministry insists on making us read," Ron voiced, getting nods.

"I still don't get why they suddenly change the curriculum like that," Seamus frowned.

"They're under the delusion that Dumbledore wants to use the students for an army against the ministry," Neville said but it only deepened Seamus's frown.

"Why would they think that?" Hermione asked this time.

"I think they just want to find anything to silence him because of what he says about the Dark Lord returning," Ron responded for Neville.

"Do you believe he is back?" Seamus questioned.

"I think it would be obvious that he is, with the increasing number of Death Eater attacks taking place all around magical Britain, it can only really mean one thing," Neville said.

"It's true," Dean said, getting everyone's attention, "They came to my manor during the break and practically demanded us to join them."

"Did they attack you?" Ginny asked worriedly from next to him.

"No, my uncles, aunts and cousins were at the manor and so they were outnumbered but they didn't take our denial well. They threatened to come back and kill us all," Dean assured but worried his girlfriend at the same time.

"How can they willingly be so cruel," Hermione sneered, "It's like they gave up their humanity."

"It's the way the wizarding world is like, anything for any kind of power. That's why this defense group is important, so we know how to fight back," Ron told her, silencing the compartment for a moment.

"About that, where do you plan on teaching us all the spells?" Ginny suddenly looked at Hermione.

"Well, Ron said that he, Neville and Harry found a place. I'm not even sure where it is," Hermione answered truthfully and turned to the two boys, "Where is it?"

"It's in a room in the seventh corridor, it's called the room of requirements," Ron replied.

"I don't think there is a room in the seventh corridor. At least there isn't one that we could use to practice magic in," Hermione frowned as did the others in the others who didn't know about the room.

"There is, it turns into anything you want but you have to make it appear first," Ron smiled at their baffled expressions.

"H-How do you make it appear?" Seamus voiced the question on their minds.

"You have to-"Neville kicked Ron on his left shin, "What the bloody hell was that for?!" Ron scowled, rubbing the painful spot. Neville just gave him a blank look but then he remembered and looked at his shin, "Oh sorry."

"What?" Hermione asked as she and the rest of the room glanced between the two boys, confused as to why Neville stopped him from answering the question.

"I think we should split up and go tell the others about the meeting on Friday," Neville tried to divert the attention.

"No, what was that about? Why don't you want him to tell us how to use the room?" Hermione narrowed her eyebrows at him.

Neville sighed, "We swore an oath not too," he lied.

"Why would you do that?" Ginny turned to her brother and folded her arms.

"It's complicated," Ron answered.

"Then how are we supposed to use the room for defense if we don't know to make it appear?" Hermione scowled, she hated not knowing things. If the room really existed, she would use it to make a library to increase her knowledge.

"Ron and I will be there early to make the room," Neville answered simply. Hermione huffed and turned away from them, seeing no one ask any more questions he continued, "I think it would be the best time to tell everyone else about the meeting on Friday," Neville stood up.

"That is a good idea," Dean shrugged, standing up also and the rest followed.

"Wait, what about the four Slytherins?" Seamus questioned, stopping everyone as they were about to leave the compartment.

"Neville and I will go," Ron exchanged a look with Neville.

"Mate, their at the Slytherin carriage. They'll tear you two apart," Seamus protested.

"We'll be okay, don't worry about it," Neville said walking out of the compartment with Ron next to him. They silently walked passed each compartment in each carriage until they reached the end of the carriage before they entered the Slytherins one. The Hufflepuffs that were in the last compartment were looking at them like they grew two heads.

"I'm not so sure anymore," Ron looked nervous.

"We said we would have Harry's back, he isn't here right now so the next best thing would be to help the mother of his kid right?" Neville whispered to him.

"I-" Ron sighed, "Fine but if we die it's your fault," Ron whisper shouted at him.

"They're just students like us Ron, you're overreacting," Neville chuckled, Ron just shrugged entered the next carriage, Neville following suit. Eyes of those in the compartments snapped and narrowed at them as they passed but they ignored them, only looking to see if the Slytherins they were looking for were in there.

"I bet you two Galleons Harry's girlfriend will act cold towards us," Ron whispered to Neville.

"It's a bet," Neville grinned, when they got to the right compartment. They entered without wasting anytime and they were lucky enough to only find Astoria, Blaise, Tracey and a pregnant looking Daphne.

"What do you want?" Daphne asked coldly, Ron held out his palm towards Neville who gave him two galleons.

"We're just here to tell you that there's going to be the first defense meeting on Friday. We meet at the seventh corridor, we'll explain everything then," Neville closed the compartment door.

"Okay, we know now. You can leave," Daphne said, she didn't want her and the others to be questioned as to why they let them stay for too long.

"Wait, first, how do you feel?" Ron asked, making her raise an eyebrow and making Neville gape at him.

"Why would you care about how she feels?" Tracey tilted her head.

"Harry does, so we do too," Ron answered. This made Daphne turn away from them and look at the passing countryside through the window. No one noticed the fraction of a second that presented sorrow in her eyes.

"I'm fine," Daphne said quietly, something in her voice betrayed her thoughts, "now, leave. Please," The boy looked at her for moment before leaving without another word, Neville following him, thinking that mentioning Harry was a bad idea.

"You've got to teach me how to do that Daph," Tracey chuckled from next to her.

"Even I believed it," Blaise concurred, smirking.

"What are you talking about?" Daphne looked at them, making them frown at her in confusion.

"The faking thing," Astoria answered.

"Oh... sure," Daphne turned back to the window. The other three magical in the compartment exchanged looks, they had all noticed Daphne's absent minded behavior and had asked her about it on occasion but she would snap at them or say it's nothing. Even her mother had tried to find out what was bothering her but to no avail, Mary, her grandmother, had gotten some what closer to an answer but was pushed away.

Daphne herself had no idea what was going on with her but all her depressing thoughts led to a certain green eyed boy. Ever since proclaiming the baby Blaise's she couldn't get him out of her mind, she could only think of how he must have been suffering in Azkaban for something he might not have done and what Ron had said only made her feel worse, he really did care for her and though she still wouldn't admit it to herself, she missed him.

* * *

Dumbledore sat on the head chair in the kitchen of 12 Grimmauld place, order meeting were becoming more of a regularity since Harry was put in Azkaban. He only had a few hours before he had to return to Hogwarts for welcome feast but Bill said that he had something to report so he called for the meeting, "What is it that you wish to report Bill?" Dumbledore questioned.

"Fleur owled me earlier today, telling me that there were reports of dozens of Death Eaters approaching different families in their manors, asking them to join their ranks," Bill said, making them gasp.

"But foreign houses don't hold seats in Wizengamot, what use could he possibly have for them?" Kingsley questioned, confused.

"Perhaps this is just for numerical gain," Dumbledore suggested, there was no other reason The Dark Lord would want some of the French to join them.

"Maybe, she said quite a bit of the houses were pureblood supremacists and had already joined the Death Eaters," Bill continued.

"It is unfortunate, this could be disastrous for us," Dumbledore sighed, "What of our numbers, is there any who have agreed to aid us?" Dumbledore asked hopefully.

"No most prefer to stay neutral and some would attack us on the request, already serving the Dark Lord," Tonk's explained.

"This is hopeless," Sirius said, his head hanging, "We can't win the war without Harry."

"Hope can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the lights," Dumbledore said to the depressed man.

"There isn't any hope without him Dumbledore. I don't understand why we don't break him out of Azkaban," Remus looked at Dumbledore.

"We cannot be going against the ministry, we need every asset we can get. I do not wish for them to consider us enemies when Voldemort makes his return public," Dumbledore explained.

"Why do you assume he will Albus?" McGonagall asked the headmaster.

"When he is prepared, he will attack. There is no doubt in my mind about it but I fear many lives will be lost upon his full return but one can only hope that our preparations will be sufficient enough."

* * *

 **A/N:Changed up the quote a bit. I'm gonna post the next ASAP.**

 **Review Please.**

 **B/N: As always, it has been an honor to prepare this chapter for the masses. I hope everyone enjoyed it, and please let us know what you think.**


	8. Falmouth

**A/N: Another chapter!**

 **Big thanks to shinykamon for being the beta of this chapter and the others before. Your awesome!**

* * *

Daphne sat on a wooden stool Granger had transfigured. She had not thought of her inability to do magic before she came to the defense groups meeting. By now the rumor mill had made the rounds about her pregnancy because of the mistake she made of not wearing her Slytherin V-neck jumper, which hid her small stomach on the train before the term began. In her defense she was a bit angry at Tracey and Blaise for not letting her know about it. She was yet to be asked about it by even Draco, something she thanked Merlin for.

Classes were also somewhat of a problem, charms more specifically, she would underpower or overpower spells. One class they had of the term, they had been practicing silencing charms on the person next to them and when she managed to put a silencing spell on Pansy that was strong enough for Flitwick to have to undo it because her attempts and those nearby had failed too, and he too deemed it unnecessarily overpowered.

Daphne watched everyone practice the disarming spell, it surprised her that only Hermione could do it correctly, but she was meant to teach them, so it only made sense. The wands of the others who tried would either fall directly down or not travel towards the disarmer, it made her question if she was able to do the spell to begin with, but she was confident in her skills. she honestly couldn't see anyone more fit to teach them but Hermione.

Hermione seemed to know what she was doing, she would help the others down to the smallest detail and made it easier for them to cast the spell. They looked far from casting it decently, but the improvements were becoming visible. Something worried her though, there was a member of the club who looked to be having no progress whatsoever even though it seemed he was doing the incantation and the wand movements correctly.

"Are you doing okay Neville?" Hermione looked at him expectantly, hoping he would be honest if there was a problem.

"Yeah, I'm fine," He said, much to Hermione's disappointment, he gave her a smile, but it didn't reach his ears.

"Are you sure?" She tried again.

"I'm sure. What makes you think something is wrong?"

"You're doing everything right, but the spell isn't working for you," Hermione responded, looking at him with confusion.

"It's his wand," Ron, who was Neville's partner, answered, walking up to them.

"Ron don't start with that again," Neville narrowed his eyes at him.

"Come on Nev, we both know it. I know it has value to you, but you have to-"

"Shut up!" Neville yelled, earning the attention of the rest of the defense group, "You expect me to let go of the only thing that can remind of what my parents were, you don't understand what it's like so don't even suggest it!" The room was filled with a grim atmosphere at the mention of his parents, everyone knew of the fate they suffered. Neville himself would have rather have them dead than to be treated like a stranger by his own parents again.

"Calm down Neville, I think Ron was just trying to help," Hermione whispered to him, understanding what was wrong, his father's wand had not choosen him.

"Just understand, I'm not saying let go of it. If we were to get attacked now, how are you going to defend yourself when you can't cast a simple disarming spell? You need to get a wand that works for you, that's the only way you're going to get through everything that's coming," Ron took a breath, "You said it yourself, he's back. You need to be prepared."

The defense group was surprised by Ron's rant, they thought he knew only of food and quidditch, but he apparently had a logical side to him. They eyed Neville for a reaction, his scowl disappeared and was replaced by a look of content. He sighed and put the wand into his pocket, then went and stood next to Daphne. "Could you transfigure a stool for me Hermione?" he looked Hermione.

Hermione pulled out a galleon and placed it on the floor next to Daphne's chair. She then imagined the detail and the appropriate size of a chair, with a light circular twirl with her wand, the galleon grew and changed in shape. It was soon replaced by a basic wooden stool, which Neville soon occupied, laying his head on his palm. Hermione turned back to the spectating group, "You should go back to practicing," she said, and everyone turned back to their partners and started firing disarming spells.

"I don't have a partner now," Ron looked around.

"I'll be your partner," Hermione said walking to the opposite side of where he stood.

"I guess I'll be the only one firing the spell, right? Since you know how to cast it already," Ron said, to which she just nodded.

The two who sat on wooden stools next to each other sat in silence, both paying no attention to each other, but Neville broke the silence with a question.

"How did the Slytherins react to you being pregnant?" he whispered.

Daphne eyed the person next to her for a moment, she felt compelled to not answer him but decided against it and shrugged, "They didn't."

"What? Not even after finding out it was Harry's?" Neville looked beyond surprised, but he raised an eyebrow when she paled a bit.

"No one has approached me about it," she kept a straight face and tried to look like she had no care for the conversation.

Neville frowned, "Oh, but don't you have you have meetings for everything?"

Daphne just looked at him, she found it strange how much people knew of their house, considering how they isolate themselves from the rest of Hogwarts. They were told from their first year that they would be seen as different because of Slytherin house's history and that association with the other houses would be a farce. This was encouraged by even Professor Snape, practically making it a rule for them.

She found Neville's words somewhat true, anything that would interest the two at them top of the hierarchy system would be discussed in the house assemblies they had quite often and no one else was allowed to call for one besides them or the head of the house... Although some were given the privilege to do so, depending on the family and their influence.

"No, we don't," She finally answered.

"If you say so," Neville said skeptically and turned back to the practicing students. He wanted to go back and practice disarming again but he knew Ron's words to be true, he needed to get a new wand if he ever dreamed of getting through the return of the Dark Lord and helping Harry. He let out a small sigh, his Hogwarts days were getting harder than he ever thought they would be, but he was sure it would be worth it in the end.

"Do you miss him?" Neville questioned, not taking his eyes off the practicing students. Daphne however remained silent, he didn't need to elaborate on who for her to know. It was still a sour subject for her, she had decided to try and think about him less, but it proved impossible because thought of him would show up in her head at random moments and much to her dismay it only got worse. This time, she decided she wasn't going to answer.

Neville snapped his head to her and his eyebrows were narrowed. He thought the answer would be obvious and quick, sure he knew that Harry and she dated for a short time but from what Harry used to say when he came back from seeing her at night, he was sure that they both liked each other, a lot.

"Do you?" He tried again, there was a beat of silence before she whispered something he didn't hear, "I'm sorry?"

"Of course, I miss him," Daphne admitted him and herself. She stood up, straightened her robes and quickly made for the exit of the room. Neville just looked at her, feeling bad for mentioning Harry. He didn't notice that her eyes watered up.

"Where are you going?" Hermione stopped her in her tracks.

"Leaving, I can't do magic, so I find no need for me to be here," Daphne answered simply without looking back.

"You never exactly told me why you can't do magic when you asked me to transfigure a chair for you," Hermione tried, the others stopped their practicing to hear her response, so as to confirm their suspicions.

"Well, that's only for me to know," Daphne said with annoyance present in her voice and continued towards the exit. Astoria, Tracey and Blaise all sighed before following her, Daphne made sure no one was outside before exiting and closing the door, but it soon reopened, and her friends stepped out. She paid them no mind and only started walking toward the dungeons.

She had not entertained the idea of starting to like him when she thought of using him, but seeing it now, Slytherin or not, she felt stupid. She always thought the worst scenario of her deceiving him, was him finding out but she ... _'No! I can't... he's a Potter, my parents, they-...they wouldn't approve. It's too late now, I've already lied to them about everything,'_ she mentally slapped herself, how could she have been so foolish?

"Daph?" Astoria broke her out of her thoughts, she hadn't realized that she stopped walking and stood in the middle of the corridor. Daphne composed herself before answering.

"Tori," Daphne starting to walk again.

"What's wrong?" Astoria questioned.

"You've been asking that quite a lot these days," Daphne rolled her eyes.

"We're worried about you, you haven't been yourself lately," Tracey uttered, she looked at Blaise for help but he remained with a neutral face.

"I said it yesterday, I'm saying it today, I'm fine," Daphne's temper started to rise, she was suddenly held by the arm, making her stop walking. She turned to Tracey with a raised eyebrow.

"Stop shutting us out Daphne, we're supposed to be helping each other, not keeping secrets," Tracey raised her voice.

Daphne jerked her arm away from her grip and sneered, "I never said I needed your help Tracey."

"You've never needed to say it for me to help you Daphne," Tracey returned Daphne's angry look with her own.

"Relax Tracey, she's hormonal. You're only making things worse," Blaise whispered to her and she visibly deflated.

"No, I am not!" Daphne shrieked, having heard what he said.

"Let's all calm down please," Astoria interjected, trying to break the tension in the air.

"Why won't you just tell us?" Tracey asked softly.

"Because I'm not even sure of what to tell you," Daphne sighed, dropping her voice, "I know that you're only trying to help but need to let me be sometimes."

Tracey stared at her best friend for a moment, she felt that maybe her sudden change was justifiable, considering everything that had happened since the beginning of fifth year, "Okay...I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Daphne waved the apology off, "I just need to get myself in order before I can be sure on what's going on with me. And Blaise..." she turned to said boy, " I'm sorry for dragging you into this."

Blaise just shrugged, "It's okay, I agreed to it. Besides, I gain something from this."

"I suppose you do," Daphne started to walk again, followed by the others.

"How are you going to do your practical OWLs Daphne?" Astoria queried.

"Great, another problem," She groaned, making them laugh at her. She held her small bump and allowed a smile to grace her lips, "You're going to be worth it, though," she whispered.

* * *

Harry sat crossed legged in the middle of his cell. Everything was barely visible for him, besides the fact that it was dark, his glasses broke the second week he was in here. He didn't even know what he was supposed to doing here, or why his supposed future self-had wanted him to be here and, so he would usually just sit there and say nothing.

He felt himself getting angrier with each passing week, he wasn't sure why, but he held it under control as much as he could. He would occasionally snap at the aurors who gave him food and water, it didn't help that they did not treat him well and it would only get worse the next morning. He felt the only thing keeping him cognisant was his knowledge of his innocence, and he was reminded of something his godfather Sirius had said.

" _I supposed I wasn't affected because I knew I was innocent, and it wasn't a happy memory, so the dementors couldn't take that from me…"_

He would occasionally think that he really did kill those people, but he knew better.

His only entertainment was his thoughts, he thought about everything that has been his life, he left out thoughts of the Dursleys because they were too painful for him, but they would pop into his head regularly and their frequency grew with each week and they only increased the growing anger he had.

Harry let out a sigh that held a tinge of frustration and laid his back on the floor. He knew he couldn't do anything in here, Voldemort could come in here and kill him right now and he wouldn't be able to anything about it, not that he could before but he's never felt more vulnerable in his life.

Not true.

He has felt more vulnerable many times before, mostly before Hogwarts, when the- His body vibrated silently when the memories of his childhood wanted to replay in his mind, he started taking deep breaths through his mouth and closed his eyes. He always felt himself subjective to his emotions, but Hogwarts usually helped him forget all the negative ones and knowing that he would return they in a few weeks when he was at the Dursley helped him endure.

Not here.

There was no Hogwarts here, only dementors and the occasional auror. Nothing to hold onto. But he had to endure.

Like he always did.

* * *

Dumbledore sat in his office with a worried look on his face. He reread the letter in his hand multiple times and it had given him quite a swirl of emotions. He himself wasn't completely sure on how to feel about it but he surprised himself by not being completely surprised by its content. They sent the letter after the eldest of the two Greengrasses had apparently accidently destroyed the two benches in front of hers during her transfiguration class, sending some of her fellow Slytherins to the hospital wing. He never knew of the situation until after reading the letter.

He blamed himself for dismissing the possibilities of what could be the results of Greengrasses and Harry's 'incident' in Severus's class, but a lot has been going on recently and he was rarely, if ever, at Hogwarts but he was aware of their relationship before Harry was sent to Azkaban and after the incident. Upon floo'ing into his office today, there was a brown owl waiting for him, with a letter on its leg.

That brought him to where he was now, after reading the letter again. He put it down and leaned back on his chair with a sigh, another Potter heir, while they never said who the father was, it was an obvious answer. They asked him to reconsider the detentions she got because of the accident in the class after going through an explanation of what was the cause of it.

He was astonished because of how early the magical drawbacks started, the babe was going to be powerful. He cast a wandless _'Tempus,'_ and stood up to go and tell McGonagall and hopefully talk to the girl. He left his office and walked patiently towards Professor McGonagall's classroom, deep in thought.

The sudden stop of Death Eater attacks had left him worried, there were suddenly less sightings of them, they were there but it seemed that their presence in Britain had been minimized. He was no fool, he was aware that Voldemort's numbers were growing and fast. An indication was that the Death Eaters seemed to be travelling in larger groups than before compared to their usually four to five a group, there was around seven to nine now.

While as for them, they had barely gotten any members. Their only milestone so far was gaining the support of the Giants, which was rather disappointing.

He stopped his train of thought when he reached the door of the classroom, he knocked.

"Enter," McGonagall said sternly from behind the door. Dumbledore entered and a surprised looked at him, and fortunately for him the girl was present.

"Hello Professor McGonagall," Dumbledore greeted, using her last name because of the presence of the student. He stood just behind the chair next to Daphne's, who felt uncomfortable.

"Headmaster," McGonagall greeted back, "Miss Greengrass, you are dismissed for tonight," she continued and gestured for Dumbledore to sit down.

"That won't be necessary McGonagall, I beg her to stay," Dumbledore said. Making Daphne sit back down.

"Might I ask what this is about headmaster?" McGonagall raised an eyebrow.

"I ask you to remove all detentions bestowed upon miss Greengrass, I have been made aware of a circumstance she faces," Dumbledore answered.

 _'Astoria,'_ Daphne cursed in her head and paled. Tracey had cast a disillusion on her and limited it to the baby bump, but Dumbledore could see it because he was looking directly for it.

"What may those be?" McGonagall asked, confused.

Dumbledore turned to Daphne, "Miss Greengrass," he started, "Do you mind?" he then requested. She shook her head but did not look at him. Dumbledore waved his hand, removing the charm and he heard McGonagall inhale but she kept her neutral face. Daphne's face turned red, "No need to be embarrassed Miss Greengrass, we will not judge you," Dumbledore assured her.

"Is this because of what happened in Professor Snape's classroom?" McGonagall asked in the same curious voice, but Dumbledore could feel the anxiety rolling off her. She had heard the rumors, but she did not believe them to be true.

Daphne's eyes widened, and she turned to look at the old witch. They knew of that? She knew that they were aware of the relationship she had with Harry before he went to Azkaban but not the potions incident that started all of this.

"I can see no other alternative. Indeed, it is," Dumbledore answered, reapplying the disillusioned charm on her.

"But Mr. Potter is-" McGonagall didn't continue because he had raised his hand to stop her from continuing and he was nodding.

"He is," Dumbledore voiced.

"Then -… What are we to do?" McGonagall allowed her neutral face to be broken with a frown.

"That, I'm afraid, is not up to us," Dumbledore responded, turning to the fidgeting girl as did McGonagall.

Daphne looked between the two, unsure of what she was really being asked, "Sorry?"

"Would you require our assistance?" McGonagall elaborated on Dumbledore's vague sentence. Daphne blinked, she wasn't entirely sure if they could help her with, they seemed to be unaware of her proclamations to her parents, so they must have not mentioned it in the letter. She steeled herself and placed a mask she hasn't used much this year, there was only one thing they could really help her with.

"Can you prevent my house from ever asking questions if it ever gets out?" Daphne questioned, she watched them both exchange a small look.

"I can speak to Professor Snape," Dumbledore said, making Daphne nod slowly, " I in turn ask you to be wary of what you write when sending out letters."

Daphne just nodded, anybody would've understood what he meant. Under the assumption that she would mention Harry being the father in a letter, he feared it would be intercepted by the ministry or worse, the dark lord.

"You are cleared of your detentions Miss Greengrass," Daphne noted McGonagall's voice sounded lighter, almost... Pitying?

"You may return to your house dormitories," Dumbledore told her, "Please tell professor Snape that we request his presence,"

"Yes professor," Daphne quickly left the room after that.

Dumbledore heard McGonagall sigh, "What is it Minerva?"

"She will never be safe again if this gets out into the public," McGonagall said.

"That is the sad truth of this," Dumbledore spoke sadly.

"Surely we can't just let her be?" McGonagall questioned, narrowing her eyebrows.

"Do not worry Minerva, we will not," Dumbledore assured her. There was a knock on the door.

"Enter," McGonagall said in the same stern voice she used on Dumbledore. Severus Snape walked in, his robes flowing like they were being carried by wind behind him, he silently sat down next to Dumbledore and gave them both a quizzical look.

"Severus," Dumbledore greeted, Minerva just gave a gentle nod.

"What is this about Dumbledore?" Snape got straight to the point, making Dumbledore sigh.

"You're aware of the incident between miss Greengrass and Harry," Dumbledore started, "It seems that she is to have a babe," Snape didn't looked surprised and both the old professors looked at him confused.

"I was aware since the first week of the term, I have already asked my snakes not to question her about the matter," Snape said, surprising them even more.

"Very thoughtful of you Severus," Dumbledore's twinkle went on overload.

"Do not dare presume I did this for Potter," Snape sneered, making Dumbledore chuckle and McGonagall's lips twitch upwards.

"Oh? You did not?" Dumbledore held a smile.

"I did not," Snape's sneer deepened.

"Stop this behavior in my classroom Albus," McGonagall said to her friend, making Snape sigh and lean back on his chair, "It's quite obvious he did it for Mr. Potter. So, this is unnecessary behavior," she continued, making Dumbledore laugh and Snape scowl in her direction.

* * *

"Power," Daphne said the password and the portrait slid open. The common room was full, with people about to leave for dinner, she saw Astoria and Tracey on the sofa, she walked up to them while glaring at Astoria, "Why did you tell mum and father about the detentions?"

"I thought they could have helped you get out of them," Astoria shrugged

"I would've told them myself if I wanted to get out of the detentions Tori," Daphne sneered.

"You don't want to get out of the detentions?" Astoria raised an eyebrow, not minding her sister's ire.

"Of course, I did but not like that," Daphne folded her arms.

"Did? So, you don't have them anymore?" Tracey voiced, blushing and looking down when Daphne glared at her.

"What happened?" Astoria sighed.

"They told Dumbledore about my pregnancy," Daphne whispered the last part to them and they gasped.

"So, he knows about you saying it's Blaise's?" Astoria looked regretful.

Daphne sighed, " No, I don't think so. They must have not been specific about it."

"What did they say?" Tracey questioned.

"They just asked if I needed help with anything and I said they should tell the other Slytherins not to ask about me," Daphne rubbed her temple.

"At least that solved a problem," Astoria tried, getting another glare from Daphne, "I'm sorry?"

"Don't do things like that without asking Tori," Daphne told her and she just nodded, "I want you to say it."

"Come on Daph," Astoria rolled her eyes.

"Tori..." Daphne narrowed her eyebrows.

"Fine, I won't do things like that without asking," Astoria relented with a sigh.

"Good."

"We should go to dinner, I'm hungry," Tracey stood up.

"Okay," Daphne and Astoria said in unison, making Tracey giggle.

* * *

Death Eaters gave way as Voldemort led his inner circle to the front of the army. Tonight, he was to make his full return, he was ready to purge magical Britain of the half-bloods and muggleborns, who were unfit to learn magic. First, he needed to install fear into the lives of the people, the current fool of the minister will fail to give a response, and everything will turn into.

"We take all the bodies," Voldemort commanded, a Sonorous charm amplifying his voice. He did not give any other order, and apparated with a 'Crack' which was followed by hundreds of others.

* * *

Students sat in the great hall, all chatter and laughing to themselves. Suddenly a wolf Patronus ran into room, white mist trailing behind it, the hall quickly became quiet, and the wolf made its way to the head table, and voiced a message before disappearing.

"Falmouth is under attack."

* * *

 **A/N:This may or may not be the last post for a bit. Thanks for reading.**

 **Review Please.**

 **B/N: As always it has been an honor to work with Baphiwens on this story. I hope you have enjoyed this chapter.**


	9. Revelations

**A/N:I pushed this one through for you guys, I'll see you after the 27th of November. Again, Big thanks to shinykamon for beta-ing this chapter and the ones before.**

* * *

The Patronus's message was met with silence by the wizards and witches it was meant for but that was soon overlooked when Dumbledore stood up. McGonagall held onto Dumbledore's shoulder and Flitwick, being short, held the side of his right leg. The hall had broken out in whispers and chatter, some of the Slytherins held gleeful expressions, knowing what this was about.

"Fawkes," Dumbledore called gently.

"Where do you think you're going?" Umbridge sneered from the end of the head table but they paid her no heed as the majestic bird flew into the hall at high speeds, it flew over Dumbledore who held his tail feather and disappeared with the two professors in a powerful line of flames and wind, almost knocking over the other professors in their seats.

They flamed into the kitchen 12 Grimmauld and encountered the order, witches and wizards were running around for what Dumbledore assumed they were looking for their battle armor, he could hear someone shouting, "Where's my wand?!" from outside the room which he shook his head too. When they noticed his and the professors' presence they stopped and looked attentive.

"We leave immediately," Dumbledore said in a serious but grim voice.

"There are hundreds of them," Tonks said from the front of the gathered group.

Dumbledore sighed, realizing why the Death Eater sightings stopped now, "We need to call the giants."

"Olympe already left for them," Sirius told Dumbledore. Slight relief took over Dumbledore's features, but he still looked tensioned.

"We leave immediately," Dumbledore repeated and apparated to Falmouth, followed by tens of members of the order. They appeared some distance away from the town, there was barely anything left, resident buildings and small were ablaze. Loud screams echoed from the area and spells anyone would recognize as the killing curse flew into the air and through the town.

"Billy," Dumbledore called but he did not need to elaborate further as Billy had already started breaking down the wards as fast as he could. When the wards were broken, as if on call, Olympe portkeyed with a large group of giants who immediately started charging into towards the town, shaking the ground with each step.

Order members glanced at each other and with newly found morale due to the giant's appearance, ran towards the town. Dumbledore sighed and turned away from the battle torn town. He pulled out the Elder Wand and casted, _"Expecto Patronum,"_ his phoenix Patronus burst from his wand, flying around him once before flapping its wings in an unmoving position in front of him.

"Falmouth is being attacked by Voldemort and his Death Eaters, send the aurors without delay," he said to the Patronus and with a last wave to of his wand, it flew away with speed. He turned back to town and strode towards it, hearing explosions. He could feel Voldemort's magic, even more with each spell the dark wizard casted, it was the one that stood out the most of all of them. With a sad shake of his head, he entered the burning town.

 _"Stupefy, Reductio, Petrificus totalus, incendio,"_ Dumbledore used simple spells on Death Eaters that tried to harm him, not wanting to resort to killing them. It was always his weakness, he found it difficult to take another life because of the hope he had that they could possibly be redeemable but even he knew it was too late for the Death Eaters and he still found himself unable to do it.

Giants smashed on their bodies, some using the wood of the remaining houses to swing at the Death Eaters and send them flying. Vampires ran towards them, dodging the spell sent their way and climbing onto the giants but most were stunned before they could do any extensive damage on them. Order members screamed as the werewolves slaughtered them.

Dumbledore frowned at the lack of the dead bodies of the people of the town, while there were few, they were supposed to exceed their current value because of the high population of Falmouth had. He side-stepped a killing curse sent his way and stunned the Death Eater. He noted that order members and even the giants were avoiding the shoreline of town, it could only mean one thing.

Voldemort was there.

Picking up his pace, he moved towards it. His allies nearby noticed his movements, started covering his route, stunning and some even killing the Death Eaters. He saw Voldemort just as a killing curse the dark wizard sent struck a witch.

"This is enough!" Dumbledore shouted, standing a distance from him. Voldemort smiled sickly, he would recognize the voice anywhere.

"Ahh Dumbledore, how nice of you join us," Voldemort feigned joy, turning to him.

"I will not allow you to continue this senseless killing," Dumbledore said, more composed.

"Oh? You truly believe you can stop me?" Voldemort laughed.

"It is indeed the reason you fear me Tom, you simply cannot best me," Dumbledore tried to anger him

"How wrong you are," Voldemort didn't take the bait, "I have never found the need to kill you old man, you were always too busy caring for those children at the school to pose a threat."

"I am here now Tom. You will lose this war, many will unite to fight you," Dumbledore said, "Even after my death."

"Like who? Your precious squib?" Voldemort snorted, the idea of that was ridiculous.

"Need I remind you, that squib was the one to vanquish you all those years ago," Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, "It may or may not be him who finally defeats you, but others will remember."

"As if anyone could kill me," Voldemort smirked, "Especially him."

"Your arrogance will be your undoing Tom, as it was Grindelwald's," Dumbledore said the last part sadly.

"Do not use that filthy name!" Voldemort finally broke. Then it started, the first jet of light came from Voldemort, and it was of green color, the killing curse. Dumbledore disapparated and appeared behind Voldemort.

Voldemort was prepared for it though and he flicked his wand, a huge pile of concrete from nearby rubble of a collapsed house flew at Dumbledore. He blasted into a million pieces before it got close and Dumbledore made the pieces go towards Voldemort.

Voldemort turned into what looked to dark mist, maybe fog, and the pieces of rubble passed right through him, then he materialized and sent another killing curse at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore side-stepped it and moved his wand in a circular motion, transfiguring the rubble that missed Voldemort into a swarm of Hornets and they immediately started attacking Voldemort.

Voldemort casted a powerful incendio, there as a bright fiery flash and the hornets fell to the ground burning. Dumbledore wasted no time in another attack and quickly fired three cutting curses at Voldemort's wand hand, they were so close together they seemed to be one spell.

Voldemort cast an incredibly bright purple shield against the curses, making them ricochet in different directions.

Green met red in the connecting of both their wands. Others had stopped to watch the duel, instead of the normal string of clashing red and green they were used too, there was a golden ball where the wands connected, which seemed to be dripping off molten gold.

Both were fighting for dominance, and anyone watching would think they were evenly matched, but the two dueling knew otherwise. Dumbledore could feel his slight disadvantage in power, he knew he wouldn't be able to keep it at a standstill for long, but he didn't have too because Voldemort had retracted his wand to the tip of his mouth and lifted his palm under it.

Breathing out, Voldemort conjured a large fiery serpent. Many if the observers started to distance themselves at this point, so not to be accidently involved. The fiendfyre attacked Dumbledore by trying to bite him with its fangs, Dumbledore quickly reacted by slashing his wand downwards. The wind picked up to high speeds in a southerly direction smashing the fire onto floor, making it a line that stood between Voldemort and him.

Dumbledore spun both his arms inwardly, making the fire retreat to him before thrusting his arm out, sending it towards Voldemort. Voldemort flicked his wand upwards and transfigured a large stone spiked wall which the fire disintegrated onto, then he pushed it towards Dumbledore. Dumbledore reacted by using an incendio, destroying the wall and covering the entire area with dust, blinding everyone.

The dust slowly cleared, and when Dumbledore could see Voldemort, his eyes widened, and he felt fear for the first time in a long time. Voldemort had his wand pointed at him, grinning maniacally, his wand was crackling with lightning, it seemed wild and uncontrolled, he had his hand out also which seemed to be feeding the wand the lightning.

Dumbledore had never seen anything of the sort, he was aware of lightning manipulation only during stormy days but starting the lightning the way he was and with a hand that did not have a wand, was something he thought impossible. He could feel the magic rolling out of it and it was overwhelming.

"My Lord!" Bellatrix's shouting broke Voldemort's concentration, the spell misfired and went towards a burning house, the spell was large in diameter, completely disintegrating the house but the lightning didn't dissolve there as expected, it went into the forest nearby destroying all the forestry it came into contact to and blew a hole through the big hill at the end.

"You dare interrupt me?!" Voldemort snarled, only then did he realize the presence of aurors and the minister himself, who stood with Dumbledore's Order. He was so caught up in the battle he did not realize their presence, but it did not matter. His Death Eaters started disapparating without disturbance because everyone was still gaping at Voldemort or the destruction the unknown spell did. Voldemort grinned before disappearing in a line of dark smoke, the seeds were planted.

Dumbledore let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, he conceded that he would have been killed then and there. He doubted even his strongest shield would have withstood that, it would've been simply impossible. That extent of elemental magic was out of the laws of magic. He looked towards the house it hit, there wasn't even ashes to show that it was somehow burned down.

The forestry nearby was no different, the was a long trail of missing soil on the ground and the trees it came into contact too before the whole on what used to be a large hill.

"He's back," Fudge whispered from behind him, his voice was shaky, and fear filled.

"Albus?" McGonagall asked in a concerned voice.

"I'm fine, Minerva," Dumbledore turned to the large group, everyone was looking at him. He glared directly at Fudge, "Is this what you wanted?"

"I-..." Fudge went silent, he had no way to answer, his ignorance ruined him.

"Obviously this was faked," Umbridge snarled.

"Shut up, Dolores," Fudge said quietly looking down but she heard him and gaped. He looked up to Dumbledore, "Where are all the bodies of the people?"

"I don't know," Dumbledore answered simply. He could see the regret in his eyes, but he couldn't even bring it in himself to even feel sympathy for him, people were going to destroy his name by the end of tomorrow.

"Preserve the remaining bodies and take the stunned Death Eaters straight to Azkaban," Fudge commanded the aurors, who did what they were told.

Dumbledore took in the damage done to Falmouth, there was barely anything left, he was sure the life losses, if counting the attack Portree, exceeded a thousand. He let out a sad sigh, it was only the beginning of the war and such large-scale battles took place.

"C-Can you defeat him?" Fudge questioned, and everyone stopped in their tracks listening for the answer. Dumbledore shook his head, it wasn't his destiny to do it, that, belonged to Harry. They all looked at him in silence, they believed their demise was imminent.

"So, we burn then," Fudge sighed, he blamed himself for not preparing everyone.

"That's entirely for you to decide," Dumbledore started, "You may have been the cause of everyone being unprepared for this, but now maybe you can help fight him."

Fudge looked thoughtful, "I wish to join you," he said. Making even Dumbledore surprised, "I've committed crimes that will make me unworthy of being the minister. I resign from the positions and I wish to help you against that monster."

"You can't be serious Fudge?! You will be arrested for conspiring against magical Britain!" Umbridge shrieked, still believing this a lie and a plot for Dumbledore to taking over the ministry.

"Shut up Dolores. You too are guilty of committing crimes, I know it was you who sent the dementors to kill Potter," Fudge sneered, making all be silent.

"It was you?" McGonagall glared at her as did the rest of the order, and Snuffles let out an aggressive bark.

"O-Of course not," Umbridge squeaked out, cowering under their gazes.

"In fact, aurors arrest Dolores Umbridge for attempted murder against a minor and for the deception of all Wizengamot," Fudge commanded, and two of them obliged by binding her.

"You traitor! I'm not going down alo-" 'Crack! her protests stopped when the auror disapparated.

Fudge sighed, " I will make a public apology tomorrow for my ignorance and resign from my position as Minister of Magic."

"That would be advisable."

* * *

The next morning news of the return of Voldemort had hit the Prophet and Quibbler, instilling fear into the public. As promised, Fudge made a public apology his ignorance and for possibly dooming magical Britain and he promised although he wasn't the minister, he would make it up to the public by helping Dumbledore fight against the Dark Lord. He had moved to a new home because of the fear of being attacked and joined the order along with his wife and son.

Dolores Umbridge was sentenced to twenty years in Azkaban by Wizengamot and was pulled out of Hogwarts. Her sentencing being so severe because of the discovery of her using a blood quill for punishing students during detentions she gave. Wizengamot wasted no time in electing a new Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour was chosen and he promised to protect the people the best he could.

Daphne frowned reading the front page of the prophet, it had the moving picture of Voldemort's wand cackling with lighting and pointing it at Dumbledore. She shook her head at the smirks some of her fellow Slytherins would give off if they found other houses members looking at them with hatred.

"You should have had more faith in your Lord, Greengrass," Draco said.

"I don't think now's the time for this Malfoy," Daphne narrowed her eyes at him.

"I believe you said something of similar context during the assembly by wanting neutrality, now look where we are," Draco retorted, "Oh and it's Lord Black now."

"No, I did not. I simply suggested we observe," Daphne rolled her eyes, "And your attempt to impress me with titles isn't going to work."

"Impress you? You're mistaken, I have made no such attempt. Why would I? Considering-"

"Greengrass is correct Malfoy, now is not the time, especially since we're in the great hall," Warrington warned him, knowing where he was going with the sentence. Draco said nothing after. Daphne turned back to the prophet, flipping to the next page, which was the article about Umbridge trying to kill Harry with dementors and her using blood quills on students.

"Stupid bint," Daphne sneered.

"What happened?" Tracey asked after swallowing the food in her mouth.

"Umbridge sent a the dementors to kill Harry," She answered frowning.

"Harry?" Tracey looked thoughtful for a moment, " You mean Potter?"

"Since when is he Harry?" Astoria whispered with a small smirk.

"Slip of the tongue," Daphne's cheeks tinged pink.

"I suppose it can happen, but why does it make you angry?" Tracey frowned.

"It doesn't, it was just surprising is all," Daphne answered.

"So, you call people stupid when they do something surprising?" Astoria raised an eyebrow, "I think I would remember something like that about you."

"Well you're not the brightest of the bunch, sometimes you can forget things," Daphne joked, trying to avert the attention from her mistake. Truth was, she had come to understand that she had only grown attached to Harry not attracted, at least it was what she thought.

"Hey! I do not," Astoria scowled, making Tracey snicker.

"Yes, you do," Tracey added and Daphne and she laughed at Astoria's face.

At Gryffindor table, most of them held the same surprised faces the other houses did.

"Finally found out the truth have they," Ron said with a frown.

"If only Harry was here to laugh at their face's," Neville shook his head

"Yeah, I wonder who they think is crazy now," Ron put the paper down.

"So, everything that happened during the third task was true?" Hermione asked, and they nodded, "Why Harry? I mean no offence to him by this, but Voldemort could have chosen someone better, but he chose Harry."

Neville shrugged, "I don't know. I've always wondered why he and I were taken into hiding by our parents as babies, maybe it has something to do with that."

"Considering tragedy struck for you both at the same night because of the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters, I think it was because the he wanted you two dead," Ron suggested.

"Why would he want two infant's dead?" Hermione frowned, it didn't make sense.

"He's apparently insane so I don't know," Ron said, "But we might be in trouble, considering Dumbledore himself admitted to not being able to defeat him."

Neville snorted, "The Slytherins might be having a party tonight."

"A young boy once told me, they're just students, like us," Ron grinned.

"Come on, I doubt they would fight against the heir of Slytherin when they're in Slytherin. Might as well consider them against us," Neville shook his head.

"You say that like you're already involved in the war," Hermione voiced.

"Of course, I am, everyone should be, especially you considering your muggle-born," Neville said and received an angry look from Hermione, "He doesn't want muggle-borns or half-bloods to learn magic, if he does win the war, you would most likely be killed."

* * *

"Ah, my loyal followers," Voldemort said, beaming. His inner circle around the table remained silent. the dark lord beaming was never a good thing. Especially when coupled with the fact that Nagini was hissing at the other end of the table. It was three weeks after the battle of Falmouth and his Death Eaters had started seeing their Lord in a new light, they knew he was powerful but the lightning attack his used at Falmouth proved his power more immense than they thought.

Voldemort was not oblivious to the new behavior towards him, they started treating more like a god than anything else and it pleased him to no end. They stuttered more in his presence and even Bellatrix was subjected to this but returned to her insane old self after a week. More and more wizards and witches were joining him, fearing for their lives.

The prophet had started to paint Dumbledore too old to defend them, something Voldemort found great amusement in. Dumbledore's words came to mind, and he snorted, how untrue they seemed to be now. Instead of uniting against him, they were joining him, and the house was starting to become too crowded for his liking. That is why they sat in Malfoy manor as of now and they used Riddle house a base now.

"I wish to welcome back our old ally," Voldemort said, just then, Severus Snape walked and sat the left side of Voldemort, after kissing the hems of his robes.

 _& I smell the old man on him&_ Nagini slithered behind Snape, and raised her boy over him. Making the potions master shift uncomfortably.

 _& Now, now Nagini. He will spy on the old man for us, he will smell like this often&_ Voldemort assured his familiar. Nagini dropped her body before moving to right of Voldemort.

Snape had returned because Dumbledore wanted to avoid another incident like Falmouth. He had refused to do it at first, but Dumbledore mentioned Lily and he had to buy into it.

"Now, that is out of the way," Voldemort started, "I have decided that I am to kill Harry Potter in Azkaban," Voldemort stated, making their eyes almost bulged out. Bellatrix start laughing maniacally.

"Excuse me for questioning my Lord, but why is it necessary?" Snape asked, expecting to get punished, which was what happened.

 _"Crucio,"_ Voldemort casted a bit angrily, "Tsk Tsk Severus, you only return today and already you question my doings, but if you must know. I wish to end the old fool's belief in the prophecy," he said through Snape's screams and ended the curse.

Snape knew he had to think of something, he knew Potter was the child of said prophecy and losing him would be losing the war, he sighed mentally sighed, " But he is not the child of the prophecy my lord," he said panting a bit.

"Then it is truly the Longbottom boy?" Voldemort narrowed his eyes.

"Indeed, my Lord," Snape lied, using Occlumency to stop any signs of it.

"That is not surprising," He lowered his wand, " I cannot kill him while he is at Hogwarts, so I will have to wait until the end of the term," he declared, leaving now room for arguments. "How it the making of my inferi army Nott?"

"According to schedule my lord, they lay on the graveyard waiting for your summons."

"Excellent," Voldemort said, "What is Scrimgeour doing about my return?"

"He proposes a conscription program for aurors and he has asked Dumbledore to train the students at Hogwarts in the art of dueling," Lucius answered, making Voldemort snort.

"Oh really, and what was the response of Dumbledore?" Voldemort questioned.

"He has yet to respond, he said he would put it under consideration," Lucius replied.

Voldemort shook his head," How trivial, how could he possibly hope for school children to combat my Death Eaters," Voldemort started, "How much of Wizengamot is under our control?"

"We have eleven of the thirty-four that hold seats in Wizengamot present in our ranks," Lucius informed him, "Selwyn's and Shafiq's are being recruited as we speak."

"Then the war has truly begun."

* * *

Daphne's Monday morning did not start well, the previous day, she had sent a response letter to her parents after they had sent a letter asking how she was and if her and Blaise's 'relationship' was doing good. She had to lie again, she wrote a letter telling them that everything was great with her pregnancy and that her 'relationship' with Blaise was doing fine.

It got intercepted.

She wished she had paid attention to Dumbledore's warning about specifics when writing letters, but it was too late. It wasn't the Dark Lord who intercepted it, nor was it the ministry and frankly, it practically might as well be considering that they could easily find out by reading the paper, it was the Prophet.

They confirmed everything unconfirmed by everyone in Hogwarts, she was at the end of looks and she hated it. The Slytherins hadn't made a comment about anything yet, which she assumed was because of their head of house. The Prophet stated that she was indeed pregnant and nearly halfway through. They also mentioned that Blaise was the father.

The looks from the three professors that knew the truth scared her the most, especially Dumbledore's. His eyes didn't have their grandfatherly twinkle and he looked extremely disappointed, but he made no attempt to talk to her as did anyone else.

"You're in trouble," Astoria whispered from next to Daphne, "Dumbledore will have your head."

"You're overreacting Astoria," Tracey rolled her eyes, "It'll settle down Daphne, like everything else."

"Not when it's born it will," Astoria retorted, "Imagine if it has his eyes, it'll make it impossible to hide."

"There are charms to change that," Tracey said, with a smirk.

"So, you want Daphne to use the charms for the rest of its life? That would be cruel," Astoria frowned.

"Can we not do this now?" Daphne shook her head at the two.

"Then what are you going to do when Dumbledore asks you about it?" Astoria raised an eyebrow.

"I'll figure it out." Daphne stood up and left Astoria and Tracey behind her in a rush to get away from the condescending stares that surrounded her.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, I pushed this one for you guys. I will post the next after the exams, thanks for reading and goodbye.**

 **Please review.**

 **B/N: It has been an honor to work with Baphiwens on this chapter, and I look forward to continuing to work with him on this story. There will be a few weeks hiatus to the story while Baphiwens is preparing for and taking his exams, but afterwards we will both be back with a vengeance to make up for lost time. Thank you for everything, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


	10. Rage

**A/N:I did say I would be back, better than ever.. I hope. Enjoy the chapter. The start of the chapter may or may not make sense to you but keep reading and it will.**

* * *

"We told you, we are not getting involved in this war Dumbledore," Ethan sat down with his wife, Olivia, next to him in Dumbledore's office.

"That's not what I mean to ask," Dumbledore sighed, the war wasn't going positively for the light. It been near 7 months since Harry was sent to Azkaban and Wizengamot was nearly overtaken by Voldemort with more Lords deciding to side with him with each victory the Death Eaters had when attacking villages, towns and cities.

Even with the help of aurors it was impossible for them to win battles, Voldemort's abominations or better known as the Inferius were massive in numbers, nearing a thousand with each battle. Few were powerful enough cast the firestorm spell to destroy and Dumbledore could not be present in every battle to do so. He did not wish to make Hogwarts a battle school, but he had taken it Rufus's request under consideration and saw no other option.

"Then what is it you want?" Ethan raised an eyebrow.

"He want's our blood," Olivia looked at her husband, frowning. What Dumbledore was planning was ridiculous.

Ethan gave Dumbledore a look of extremely displeasure, "You've clearly gone insane, you can't expect to involve children into a war that even you are suffering from and come out on top."

"Than what do you suppose I do? Let all the muggleborns and Half-bloods be killed just because I didn't want them to fight that monster?" Dumbledore shook his head, these two never saw the reasonings of all his plans. The questioned silenced them both and so Dumbledore continued, "The best way for everyone to survive this war now is to learn how to defend ourselves."

"I suppose you plan on teaching them yourself?" Ethan relented with a sigh.

"No, Rufus will send auror trainers tomorrow to begin the training program for the students," Dumbledore answered, smiling at Ethan.

"Why don't you train them yourself? They could learn a lot from you personally," Olivia tilted her head in confusion.

"I would be too busy to properly offer them training, I do not wish to leave abruptly during it," Was Dumbledore's reply.

Ethan snorted, "If the boy was to come asking for you to train him, you would do it without hesitation."

"That would be completely different situation," Dumbledore said, "He is far more important than you realize."

"What could possibly make him different from the other students? I was there when we checked the power levels the day he was sent to Azkaban, he wouldn't be much help in a battle," Ethan challenged, inwardly he knew that the boy must be important for Dumbledore to stress against sending him to Azkaban his point so much in Wizengamot that day.

"Indeed, even so, if he was so important to you, you would have broken him out of Azkaban already by now, what with the dark lords' affiliation with him," Olivia concurred with her husband.

"I do not wish to go against his wishes, he is there for his own reasons that not even I am aware of. At least that was what I assumed at first, but I plan to rectify my misconception of him wanting to be there," Dumbledore assured.

"Do you," Ethan grinned, it didn't take a genius to figure out what he meant by that, "And pray tell, what will happen to him when the dark lord comes for him?"

"We hope he is ready then," Dumbledore stood up from his seat and moved towards his bookshelf, he pulled out a book and read the first sentence, "Whenever there was there was situation, whenever the was a battle, Hogwarts was there to help, and it forever shall be," The bookshelf shook and started to split in half, the rest of it disappearing into the walls that were next to it.

Once fully open, there were four hand shaped holes in the wall, each with a different symbol of an animal in the palm area. The first one was Snake, the next was a lion, then an Eagle and the last was a Badger. In the spaces in between the holes there were daggers with different color gems at the beginning of their metal handles which were, green and silver, scarlet and gold, blue and bronze, yellow and black.

Dumbledore stood over the Eagle, Olivia the Badger and Ethan the Lion, each holding their respective dagger near their palms, "Where's the Serpent king?" Olivia questioned.

"In Azkaban," Dumbledore answered.

"The boy?" Ethan asked, surprised.

"I too was surprised at the revelation," Dumbledore nodded, before cutting a horizontal line on his palm making blood flow out of the cut, Ethan and Olivia followed him in doing this. They exchanged glances before they placed their bleeding hands into the small holes with the symbols, which their hands fit perfectly into. Upon complete contact with the symbolized holes, a glow emitted from them a bright light of scarlet blue.

The glows continued before stopping for a moment then turning back on, far brighter than before enticing them to close their eyes with their unoccupied hands. The entire castle began to shake, like it was being affected by a minor earthquake, scaring the students, professors and the wizards and witches that took residence at Hogwarts. The fountain in the middle of the courtyard outside, descended through the floor and disappeared not to long after.

The perimeter of the courtyard began to expand, not visibly however, the growth in size would only be visible to those who stood within the courtyard. The fireplaces for all the houses except Slytherins s

"That's enough," Dumbledore pulled his hand away, as did Ethan and Olivia.

"You believe the size substantial?" Ethan cleaned the blood off his hand.

"For now, I suppose," Dumbledore answered, healing his palm.

"The Slytherins will think you're playing favorites when they find out about the extra rooms," Olivia warned.

"What would be new?" Dumbledore questioned with a hint of rare sarcasm from him. making them both smirk.

"How are you going to separate the students or the witches and wizards that are loyal to the dark lord or you?" Ethan asked, sitting down next to his wife.

"I won't" Dumbledore said, "Even if they are loyal to him, there is nothing that can do while they are here at Hogwarts."

"They could try and kill you," Ethan suggested, making his wife glare at him, "It was only a suggestion, maybe a possibility."

"It is no problem. Now, I thank you two for coming today,' Dumbledore smiled gratefully as they stood up.

"No need to thank us Dumbledore, it was only right," Olivia nodded at the headmaster.

"Are you sure you don't wish to stay at Hogwarts? You will find a place nowhere safer," Dumbledore tried, standing up.

"We will be fine. We leave the country tonight," Ethan shrugged.

"Okay, I thank you again. You know how it works, correct?" Dumbledore received a nod, "Fawkes, please escort them out of Hogwarts," The phoenix moved out of its perch, the two held hands and Ethan grabbed Fawkes' tail feathers and flamed out of the office with his wife. Dumbledore sat back down with a sigh.

There was much planning to do.

* * *

Azkaban was threatening to drive Harry mad, reliving all the cruel things he went through as child was tormenting. It amazed him how Sirius had survived years of this, but he too has been here for years, at least that's what he thought, he lost his perception of time. He hugged his knees tighter, seeking any warmth he could. He felt cold, hungry and mostly angry.

He was enduring all this pain without any understanding or reason of why he was even doing it, even clinging to the supposed truth of his innocence was starting to wear down on him. Any positive thoughts would almost immediately drain out because of the dementors, making him believe he was to spend the rest of his life here and the thought scared him to no limit.

Harry often wondered if Daphne was treating their son right, but only negative images of that question would show up in his mind, but he understood that it was the dementors. It angered him even more that if he ever was to get out of here, he was going to have to continue to be her just because his older self said but anything that came of Older Harry's mouth was sounding like hippogriff dung to him now.

"Here's your dinner, boy," An Auror threw the tray in front of him.

" _You dare use magic in my house boy?!"_

"Don't call me that," Harry said, just above a whisper.

"I lost my wife and daughter when you destroyed Portree, I don't give a damn what you don't want me to call you. Boy," The auror scowled.

" _Beat that filthy curse out of the boy Vernon!"_

Harry moved his hands to rub his temple and started taking deep breaths, he had no idea if what happened to him when his anger starts to get the better of him would was normal, but he considered it something that happens to those in Azkaban. He feels as if his body is being torn apart from this inside, his whole-body jerks and visibly vibrates but he would gain control of whatever was happening to him before it could escalate by taking breaths and calming himself down.

"You need to stop," Harry tried again, his anger rising and as the familiar feeling of his body starting to be torn apart. He clenched his fists to try and stop the shaking, but it only seemed to make things worse this time, all the hardships he endured at the Dursley, specifically those that had to do with him doing magic and being caught. He had made a conscious decision to stop doing anything magic and he had done this for more than half his life, that is until the Hogwarts letter came, and Dumbledore forced them to make Harry go, but even then, when he returned to the Dursleys, he had to suppress anything magical.

"I need to find a name for you and I don't think Potter would do. I feel boy would do," The auror mocked with a small shake of his head.

 _"I forbid you to ever do that again boy!"_

 _"I'll kill you for destroying my kitchen boy!"_

"You're shivering, would you like a blanket boy?" He continued. Harry's clenched fists drew blood and he bit his tongue, the pain was unbearable and the all the contained anger he held since his childhood turned his vision red.

"You have to stop!" Harry's shout echoed through the passageways of the prison, his body continued to jerk, as if he was having a seizure.

"What will you do if I don't, _boy_ ," The auror emphasized boy that time, noticing Harry's temper rising from the word. Suddenly, the stone surrounding the cell started cracking, leaving lines that continue to grow and go in different directions, even outside the cell. The sounds of bending metal echoed returned the aurors attention to the cell before him and fear overtook him when he found that the bars were all bent, leaving a large circular hole in the middle.

"I'm sorry," we're Harry's last word before he turned into a vibrating disorientation and his eyes turned pure white, his body changed into a violent torrent of darkness which seemed to have a red core in the middle. The darkness that was Harry moved in what appeared to random routes, it killed the auror guard instantly upon contact. It continued destroying large portions of the triangular prison, killing all those it touched in it.

The dementors moved away from it, sensing that it emitted far more negative energy than even they. All the wards surrounding that were instilled on the prison shattered because of the destructive form, making the large structure of the prison unbalanced as they lost the magic that kept it together.

Harry felt as if he was on the border of life and death and he was barely aware of what he, or it, was doing. The memories were still replaying in his head and it only served to pulse his distress, he was barely aware of his own, but he only felt like destroying anything and everything as they continued in his numb mind, that is until one good one played in the mix of all the negative ones.

 _"We have a son?"_

 _"Yeah, we were pretty happy until-"_

A bright white flash emitted from where the dark entity and it stopped, only shifting violently in place. A loud and continues 'swishing,' emitted from it and it' size started to decrease and change into a human form, Harry. His head was the first to change back to flesh with, before the darkness moved slowly downwards like mist, soon his whole, nearly naked with only torn boxers left, body floated in midair.

Harry started to fall towards the sea. He regained his senses, and realized his new predicament. He wasn't far off the shore, so he knew there was a bed off rock just under the water. Closing his eyes, he frantically tried to think of somewhere safe. He felt like he was being squeezed through a tube before he hit a solid floor, face flat but it wasn't as painful as he thought it would be.

He raised his head looked around, he was in the middle of a familiar street and it was dark. A shifting sound caught his attention and he turn to a building that was expanding in the center. He allowed a smile to form on his lips, 12 Grimmauld place. He tried to get up but fell down again when pain shot through his body from his right hand, he screamed into the road before gently getting up using only his left hand.

Harry used his left hand to gently lift his right to observe why it was so painful, he frowned when he saw that it had no bones and it just hung, 'Poor attempt at apparition,' he thought. He used his left hand to hold onto the wrist and looked up to the newly revealed number twelve, he walked into the building and found it dark. Frowning, he moved towards the kitchen and came to the same conclusion.

His face adopted a horrified expression, did they lose the war? He ran upstairs towards Sirius' room hoping that maybe they were asleep, doing his best to ignore the pain from his hand and from his mid-sections, but upon opening the door he found it torn and destroyed. He slowly got in and looked around, trying to be wary.

"What is the filthy half-blood doing out of Azkaban?" A raspy voice called from the door, making Harry whip his head in that direction.

"Kreacher," Harry sighed, "Where is everyone?"

"Kreacher's blood traitor master tell Kreacher to not to tell anyone of locations," Kreacher said.

"So, they're alive," Harry sighed in relief, "Tell me Kreacher, Sirius would want me to know."

"No," Kreacher said, making Harry groan. Then an idea came to mind.

"Dobby," Harry called. Said house elf appeared with a 'POP', already in tears.

"Dobby's knews the great Harry Potters woulds retu-"

"Not now Dobby," Harry interrupted, "Do you know where the order or Sirius is?"

"Of course, sirs," Dobby nodded.

"Great. Where are they?" Harry questioned.

"At the schools sirs," Dobby answered, Kreacher stood only observing the two.

"Hogwarts?" Harry raised a tired eyebrow, which Dobby only nodded too, "That's odd. Dobby, can you please take me to..." Harry glanced at his hand, "The hospital wing at Hogwarts?"

"Yes sirs," Dobby agreed enthusiastically. He held onto Harry's bare leg before transporting him to Hogwarts, leaving a sneering Kreacher. Harry appeared inside the hospital wing, with the pain getting more intense. He sat on one of the free beds, the others had adults Harry didn't know.

"Thanks Dobby, I'm okay now," Harry smiled.

"The great Harry Potter's thanks Dobby's on his returns, Dobby's is not worthy," Dobby cried and Harry left him have his moment, only observing with a small smile. The door of the Madam Pomfrey's storage closet opened and upon setting her eyes on Harry, she dropped the potions she was carrying, and her eyes went wide.

"How are you here?" She whispered.

"I'm not sure myself," Harry shook his head, "Can you help me with my injuries? Their quite painful," Harry gestured towards his hand, then her healer instincts took over and she rushed to him, not taking into account that he was nearly naked.

"What did you do to yourself? You lost all the bones in your right hand and all these cuts. What possibly could have even happened to your clothes?" Pomfrey questioned after observing Harry's hand and body.

"Well the bones I lost because I didn't apparate very well. And the cuts, I don't know" He wasn't really lying, he had no idea what happened to him at Azkaban. Pomfrey moved into her storage closet, exiting with a number of potions but Harry recognized one, skele-gro. She fed him some of them and Harry felt the pain of the scratches disappear as they healed.

With a wave of her wand, Harry was wearing simple jeans and a t-shirt. She folded a white cloth around Harry's neck and back area, attaching it to Harry's arm, to stop the hand from hanging, "You know how it works, don't move your hand for the rest of the night," She said before making him drink the skele-gro. Harry felt his throat burn and its nasty taste alone made him want to spit it out. He watched her apply healing spells to some of the deeper scratches.

"How long has it since I've been in Azkaban?" He queried.

"A little over seven months," She answered, running a diagnostics spell over him, checking for any internal damage.

"So, Daphne hasn't given birth yet?" Harry asked, surprise written on his face.

"How could you possibly..." Pomfrey shook her head, "You certainly make life interesting Potter. No, she hasn't but she is close, she's going to be sleeping here as of tomorrow."

"That's great," He said more to himself, than her. Then his expression went a bit sour, "How is she doing? I take it people know about me and her?" Madam Pomfrey adopted a nervous expression, which surprised Harry considering he's never seen her nervous.

"I'll go call Dumbledore," She rushed out of the room, without letting Harry give a retort.

"What just happened Dobby?" Harry turned to where he last saw the house elf standing, but he too disappeared, and that made Harry raise a curious eyebrow. He felt himself getting drowsy as the last of the potions took effect and he laid down on the bed, sleeping comfortably for the first time in seven months.

Pomfrey walked into great hall and made her way to the head table, passing the chatting students and adults. Dumbledore himself had stood up, meeting her near the podium, "Potter is in the medical wing," she whispered into his ear. A smile crept onto Dumbledore's surprised face, but the most obvious emotion was surprise, he told McGonagall to dismiss everyone after dinner and he followed Madam Pomfrey out of the hall and towards the medical wing.

"What do you think that was about?" Astoria asked.

"Most likely some more injured people were found, St. Mungo's reached its capacity of patients this morning as did many others," Cyrus answered, he and his wife, along with many other houses had moved to Hogwarts for protection against the dark lord for refusing to join him.

"So, they are being kept here?" Daphne looked up from a dish.

"Yes," he nodded.

Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey made their way to the hospital wing, while Dumbledore asked her questions, "What was his condition?"

"Nothing that looked too severe, he injured some of his internal organs but not a great deal and he lost all the bones in his right hand," She tried to assure him, "He is likely asleep by now, I fed him some potions to heal his injuries and the bones."

"How did he say he got the injuries?"

"He lost his bones from not apparating correctly. The internal injuries, he was not sure himself, but they too are most likely from not apparating well," She opened the door to hospital wing to find Harry sleeping soundly, looking more relaxed than when he had gotten here.

"He really is here," Dumbledore sighed in relief, "How did he manage to escape?"

"He doesn't know and don't come asking him questions when he wakes up," She glared at the Headmaster.

"I would do no such thing," Dumbledore said defensively. She nodded and turned to the sleeping Harry's sleeping form.

"He asked about Miss Greengrass."

"Oh..." was all Dumbledore said.

"He is the father, isn't he?" she asked, to be sure.

"You are already aware of the answer," Dumbledore then turned to her, "Thank you for informing me of this, please send him to my office once he wakes."

"Only if he is in the right condition," Pomfrey surrounded his bed with curtain walls, "I must run more spells on him," Dumbledore knew that was her telling him to leave and so he did after a goodbye. He walked to his office with a smile, maybe there was hope.

* * *

"How are you holding up Greengrass?" Warrington questioned Daphne, as she and the rest of the house and some of the adults sat in the common, all of them conversing with themselves. Surprisingly, the Slytherins were being extremely supportive of her. They had helped her over the months, helping her with homework and getting her food whenever she didn't feel like leaving the dungeons. Things only got easier when her parents arrived here, though sleeping allocations were somewhat of a problem.

"I'm holding up okay. Thanks," She sent a grateful smile at him, receiving a nod in return and he left to talk to his friends.

"I swear, if I have to wake up with a sore back again, I'll go after Dumbledore myself. This is no way a lord should be living," Cyrus said from next to Daphne.

"What did you expect, a king-sized bed and cookies?" Cassandra looked at him quizzically.

"It wouldn't hurt," he grumbled.

"I heard the other houses have new dormitory rooms for you guys," Daphne shrugged.

"We were told, I hope they have comfortable beds," Cyrus said, looking hopeful, getting a laugh from his wife.

"Why haven't we gotten any extra dorms?" Astoria frowned

"Dumbledore said that he and the heirs of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff performed some sort of ritual to add the extra rooms and extend the courtyard but the Slytherin line died out so there was no one left to perform it for Slytherin house," Cyrus explained.

"Died out? I thought the Dark Lord was one," Daphne raised an eyebrow.

"That could just be rumors, even so, I doubt he would come to help Hogwarts," Cyrus

"But he's a parselmouth, I doubt it's only rumors," Astoria piped in.

"Perhaps but if the prophet does not lie, so is Potter and the Potters have never had any who have the ability" Cassandra spoke this time, glancing at her husband for a negative reaction at the mention of the name but found none.

"Doesn't the ability originate from the Slytherin line?" Daphne questioned, it wasn't making sense.

"That's what we know but it's rumored to run in other lines as well. Either is possible really, they could both be connected to Salazar Slytherin," Cassandra answered.

"That would make them related," Daphne's shiver went unnoticed, "How long do you think our house will stay neutral?"

"I'm not sure, most of their parents already sided with him but it doesn't look like that's influencing their standings. The other families and us, already sided with the light by coming to Hogwarts, perhaps when Wizengamot is completely lost, will everyone change their minds," Cassandra said.

"But Rufus is still going to be minister, would it matter even if Wizengamot is taken over?" Astoria queried.

"That would be an easy problem to solve," Cyrus said.

"How would they solve it?" Astoria narrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"By killing him," Daphne answered for him.

* * *

Harry woke up with a small start the next morning. He gently got up and rubbed the sleep from his before glancing around only to find his bed covered with curtain walls, he laid back on the bed with a smile, remembering that he wasn't at Azkaban anymore. He honestly felt no rue for destroying it, even if he didn't know how he did, it wasn't something he regretted, no one deserved to live in those conditions.

As for the prisoners, they were all murderers and rapists, those who were most likely fighting for the wrong side of the war or there for something their intentionally committed actions. He stretched out his right arm and looked at his hand, all the bones had healed overnight, and it felt relaxed.

"Oh good, you're awake," Madam Pomfrey walked in with several potion vials.

"Good morning," Harry got up and let her inspect his hand, when she found nothing wrong, she placed the potions on his lap.

"Drink them all," She told him sternly, and Harry obliged without protest. When he was done, she left him alone for a moment, only to come back with breakfast for his. "How are you feeling?" she placed his dish on his thighs and observed him.

"Great really, I don't feel any pain coming from anywhere," He answered honestly.

"Okay, that's good," She nodded slowly.

"You're still going to make me drink the potions?" he asked.

"Of course, I am," She pulled out her wand a ran more diagnostics spells on him.

"How's' the war going? Are we winning?" Harry questioned, taking bites out of his eggs and bacon.

"Unfortunately, no. The people that are sleeping on the other beds are all that's left of the light trying to retake Dundee," She said,

"Out of?" Harry gave her a perplexed look

"A hundred," She answered, making him pale a bit.

"Haven't the muggles noticed anything strange?"

"No, the dark lord has only attacked magical towns and villages. Their still oblivious," She used a healing spell on his arm for a cut that was still there.

"Was it this bad during the last war?"

"This war is already far past the last. The dark is forcing people to join them this time, Death Eaters kill them on the spot if they deny them," Madam Pomfrey

"So, people know that there's no way you can't get involved," Harry continued for her in understanding.

"Enough questions now. I want you to stand up and tell me how you feel," She took his dish from him and observed him as he got off the bed, he got up the bed and stood on the ground.

"I still feel good. It still doesn't hurt," Harry looked at her.

"Good," She ran a cleaning over him before going through the curtain walls and coming back with his Gryffindor robe's," Wear this. I put potions in your robe pockets and I want you to drink them every six hours, if you skip on one of them, I'll know."

"I won't," Harry assured her, taking the clothing from her.

"When you're done, you should go to Dumbledore's office, he's been asking about you all morning. Try not to scare the students too much," Madam Pomfrey gave him a copy of the daily prophet before leaving to give him space to change. Harry looked at the title, _Azkaban Destroyed,_ and put it on the bed, already knowing what it was about.

He changed into his robes slowly, imagining what the first conversation with his grandfatherly since what felt like years for him, would be like and he felt stupid for it, it hadn't been that long. Once he changed into his robes, he put the curtain walls before making his way to the exit, "Thanks for healing me Madam Pomfrey," he said to her through her door and didn't receive a response, but he knew she acknowledged it.

He took a breath and put on a smile before exiting the hospital wing and walked to Dumbledore's office. On his way, the students that saw him stopped walking only to gape him at him, but no one made an attempt to conversate with him, but Harry only smiled at the and kept going. When he reached the statue to Dumbledore's, he looked at it for a moment, remembering that he wasn't told the password.

"Lemon tarts?" he said skeptically, hoping it hasn't changed but was pleasantly surprised to find that it hadn't, the statue slid open to reveal a stairway. He climbed it and knocked gently on Dumbledore's door.

"Enter," came the grandfatherly voice. Harry open the door and got into the office, Dumbledore looked up and the twinkle in his eyes returned and he gave out a smile.

"Harry, please, take a seat," Harry sat down with a smile of his own. Dumbledore put down the parchment he was reading, "How are you feeling?"

"Great. I just missed sleeping on a bed," Harry answered with a small chuckle.

"I understand why you would. I can't imagine what you had to endure at Azkaban," Dumbledore's smile faltered, "I'm sorry I couldn't get you out myself."

"You don't have to apologize professor, I put myself there. I know you tried to help me during my trial, but I had to go there," Harry assured him.

"Why?" Was Dumbledore's question.

"I don't know," Harry rubbed the back of his neck, he still found no purpose to his suffering there.

"You don't know?" Dumbledore raised an eyebrow

"No sir but I felt like I did, why, I'm not sure. Yet," Harry lied, well not completely. His supposed future self wanted him there, he just listened but he wasn't sure why he needed to be there.

"Could you please enlighten me on how you got out and managed to destroy Azkaban in the process?" Dumbledore put his hands together on his desk.

"I know how I did it, but I don't know how I did it," Harry said, confusing Dumbledore even more.

"Please explain everything Harry," he tried.

"There was a auror, he came to give me my food for the day, but he didn't do that, instead he called me boy and it made me relive all the beatings I endured at the Dursleys and it made me... angry."

"But Harry, I called you that every day," Dumbledore frowned.

"This was different Dumbledore," He clenched his fists," The way he said it, it wasn't out of care. It was completely out of spite, he hated me, it was like I was animal to him and he wanted to slaughter me," he snarled, surprising Dumbledore.

"I'm sorry Harry. I understand now," Dumbledore nodded, trying to calm him down and it did.

"Sorry," Harry sighed, "I was losing myself slowly each day there, my emotions were out of control and the most dominant was anger. The auror made me relive my life at the Dursleys and instead of being dejected, I felt angry. That's when I couldn't control it anymore and decided to let it go."

"Let what go?"

"I don't know. The monster, the beast. I don't know what it was. It was big, dark and extremely violent but it was me, I turned into it and wanted to destroy everything. So I did," Harry rubbed his temple and looked at Dumbledore, who had a thoughtful expression.

"Harry," Dumbledore started," Would you mind explaining your childhood to me?"

"There's nothing you don't already know," he narrowed his eyebrows.

"Harry, I want you explain everything to me. In detail, how you felt and what exactly they've said to you. Perhaps from your discovery of magic till your Hogwarts letters" Dumbledore tried, and Harry clenched his fists again.

"I discovered magic when I six, I was having a nightmare and when I woke up in the broom- closet, what little I had in there was floating in the air and that's when I knew what I thought were simple coincidences before weren't coincidences. When I had confronted them about it the next morning, that's when the beatings got worse than they already had been. I overheard them talking about it that same night and I heard them call it magic, so I called it magic," Harry said.

"Did you try and learn to control it?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, but they wanted me to stop, they made it clear with the beating, and me being the child I was, I did. But things only got worse, I was becoming more prone to accidental magic and they beat me every day for it, but they didn't realize that the more they battered me for it, the worse it got. I was getting beat at least twice every day, a six-year-old me. Until one day, I didn't want any more of it, I loathed magic and wanted nothing to do with it and then everything stopped, no accidental magic, nothing. It was like it disappeared and I turned into a... squib. And it stayed like that until the day you came with my Hogwarts letter and even then…" Harry explained.

"Harry could you explain how you felt when you got angry in Azkaban?" Dumbledore wiped a tear that formed at the corner of his eye.

"I felt my body vibrate in an unnatural way and like I was being torn apart from the inside," Harry answered, making Dumbledore get a thoughtful expression. The headmaster got up from his chair and went to his bookshelves, laying his finger on books and reading the titles, this went on for minutes until he reached the bottom left corner of the shelf and pulled out a black book. His features got noticeably paler as he read on, before finally turning to Harry.

"I truly am sorry Harry," he practically pleaded for his forgiveness.

"What's wrong?" Harry raised an eyebrow.

"You're an obscurial."

* * *

A/N: Glad to be back, expect more soon.

Please review.


	11. Darkness

A/N: Sorry again about not updating, I've been busy.

* * *

"I Don't know what that is," Harry admitted.

"I would be surprised if you did, not many bother to learn about them, considering their rarity. It used to be taught here, during the early days of Hogwarts when they were still common," Dumbledore sat down again, reading the information in the book, "An Obscurial is a wizard or witch who develops a dark parasitical force that resides in your core because of physical or psychological abuse invoked on the host because of their magical abilities. When under strong emotional distress, you turn into what is known as an obscurus and based on the description you gave me on what happened to you and what you turned into in Azkaban, you transformed into an obscurus."

"So, because of the Dursleys abusing me, I have a parasite that's in my core?" Harry asked, still confused.

"Yes and no, the Dursleys abused you before you realized that the strange things you do were magic, and that alone was not enough. You must make a conscious attempt at suppressing your magic, so when you hated magic and wanted nothing to do with, enforced by the abuse of the Dursleys, the parasite formed," Dumbledore answered with a sigh at the end, "The first full-body transformations are always the most impactful on your body. Normally, you would have been relatively fine."

"An obscurial," Harry repeated to himself, of course, it had to be him, "I've been under distress there my whole childhood, why didn't I release it then?"

"It may have something to do with the blood wards I instilled onto you when you were a baby, they prevented anyone who intended to harm you to enter the Dursleys household. When you turn into your obscurus, there's a high possibility of you not turning back and dying. The wards may have recognized it as an entirely different entity that meant to harm you and the Dursleys and therefore stopped you from turning into it," Dumbledore explained.

"Oh.. I mean, it can't be too bad right? I'll live.. right?" Harry took a small gulp, fidgeting with his fingers.

"It's incredibly adverse Harry, it could spell quite a short life for you or even instant death if it becomes too much for you to handle," Dumbledore looked at him apologetically and Harry's blood froze at that. Death? He always found himself easily acceptant of it, sure he would try and avoid it, but it wasn't something he could say he was truly scared of. But that was before his life was the mess it was now, with Daphne and everything.

"There has to be some cure, I mean, there's a cure for everything with magic, isn't there?"

"There is, but it's more likely we'll get you killed then getting it out of you. Although that would be the best-case scenario; for you to actually die. If not, you will live a life of pain and suffering," Dumbledore said, making Harry give a perplexed look.

"Are you telling me that you want to end my life? You can't be ser-"

"Calm down Harry, I mean nothing of the sort. I only give you a warning that your life will be one of suffering," Dumbledore interrupted, shaking his head. The idea was propitious, "How long you live will depend on the amount of Power your core has."

"So, any day now," Harry hung his head, why did everything have to be hard for him?

"Not exactly. Your core is going through a change in Azkaban, it's... different. It seems to be growing, slowly but surely."

"How do you know about this?" Harry raised his head.

"Mage Sight. No one knew what they were looking for that's why it was near impossible to see it before, now the parasite is very visible," Dumbledore replied.

Harry nodded slowly, "Does this all mean I'll survive?"

"Yes, but your lifespan won't be one of the average wizard or witch. It will be shortened drastically," The headmaster explained, "I don't know where to begin on explaining how difficult life will be for you, Harry."

"It's always something to me, isn't it? Why is it that all the unpleasant things happen to me? You tell me that I'm going to die and-"

"Not die, your life will just be shorted," Dumbledore interrupted

"It's the same thing Professor!" Harry clenched his fists, "I could die to tomorrow for all we know or even tonight. You don't know how hard things are for me, a powerful maniac is out for my blood, this Obscurial thing and I'm supposed to be a father. Me, a father. Something that I've never had or even seen, how am I supposed to pull that off? If that's not enough if I don't die because I'm an Obscurial, The Dark Lord will make sure I do because I killed him when I was a baby, a bloody baby," Harry held his hair with both hands like he wanted to pull it out and Dumbledore could have sworn he saw him distort for a moment, "I'm condemned."

"You are not Harry, you can prevail-"

"With love? Don't repeat the same speech you gave me after the tournament, maybe it was the case with my mother's sacrifice, but magic doesn't always work like that. Look at Voldemort, he doesn't believe in such and he's the most powerful dark lord known to magic!" Harry leaned back in his chair, "Things can't get any worse."

"Perhaps if you sought to try and understand my wording before you make such assumptions," Albus shook his head, "I was not going to imply love Harry, as I mentioned before, your core has grown and is still growing. Perhaps not as fast as I'd like, but it is. The Obscurus is stealing your magic but the growth of your core is compensating for the lost power," Dumbledore said to the frustrated boy.

"I'll be fine?" Harry asked, making Dumbledore shake his head again.

"No, this is only temporary. Once your core reaches its capacity size, it will stop. Whether or not it will regrow if your obscurus continues to rob you of your magic then, I am unsure."

"I have magic?" Dumbledore could hear the excitement dripping off Harry's now less angry voice.

"Not a lot of it yet but yes, you do," Dumbledore gave him a small smile, making Harry smile back

"That's the second-best news I've had all year," Harry said, surprising the old wizard.

"Is that so? I would assume that it would be the first, considering how much you've wanted it," The ancient wizard replied.

"A year ago, it would have been," Harry shrugged, "I'm sorry about the little outburst before. I'm glad I might be able to protect myself and my unborn baby," Dumbledore noted his exclusion of Daphne but said nothing. Instead, he contemplated letting Harry know about the prophecy. Considering Harry's small outburst earlier on, it was not the best time but when was it going to be the best time?

Dumbledore had kept it a secret for years and he was almost certain that Harry would be somewhat angry. Though the choice was down to prolonging the war and risk even losing it completely or try and fit in a little training with the Harry's growing magic, unfortunately for him, Dumbledore knew the chances of Harry beating Voldemort now was near zero.

Logically speaking, it really was impossible. The Dark Lord had more than forty years of training over Harry and even training him now was going to make little difference. Then there was the problem of having to wait until Harry had the energy for more advanced spells, Dumbledore knew personally that he was going to need them. No simple spell was going to make them win the war.

The fireplace roaring to life interrupted any further conversation, Rufus Scrimgeour stepping into Dumbledore's office with a panicked expression.

"Dumbledore-" He stopped in his tracks, staring at the sitting boy, his anxiety disappearing and being replaced with shock and mild curiosity. How had he survived Azkaban? Thinking back on it now, they never found his body. Only the other prisoners. It only made sense that he had survived somehow, or maybe it was he who had destroyed it. He held his wand in its holster, just to be safe.

"None of that Rufus," Dumbledore said sternly, making the ministers head turn to him.

"What is he doing out of prison?" Scrimgeour asked curiously.

"Azkaban isn't a factor of imprisonment anymore, where else would he be if not free?" Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.

"Perhaps, but why was his survival not reported upon discovery?" Rufus retorted, "Even more, how is it he survived? None of the prisoners are alive."

"That, even he is unable to answer." Dumbledore started, lying and making Harry look at him thankfully, "Take a seat, so we can discuss this," he gestured to the seat next to Harry, which the minister reluctantly took; still gripping his wand in its holster.

"Explain this to me Dumbledore" Rufus demanded, making Dumbledore smile. The man was eager.

"Harry isn't sure what truly happened. He was asleep during the incident, he doesn't even recall coming here."

"That raises suspicion. Out of everyone, the one responsible for destroying Portree is the only one to survive the killings of all the prisoners and the destruction of the detainment center itself. Using such an excuse makes it even worse." The minister didn't bother to hide his own misgiving.

"It wasn't-" Harry started, but Dumbledore motioned for him to stop. He disobeyed, "It wasn't me. I didn't do anything to anyone that night. I was sitting here with Dumbledore. during the incident."

"If I remember correctly, you admitted to the crime," Rufus protested, making Harry nod.

"I did."

"Then was is it are you trying to say?" The minister was starting to look annoyed.

"I said I was guilty of destroying Portree. It was a lie. I didn't do anything that night-in fact, I didn't know what was happening until the court case. Dumbledore and I were speaking about-" Harry caught himself, almost letting the personal contents of their conversation slip," -something personal when Auror Tonks' Patronus came in, requesting an urgent meeting with him, thus ending our conversation and making me go back to the dormitories, where I slept until awoken by Fudge," he continued, figuring Scrimgeour knew about the order. He was quite sure everyone did at this point.

"If that were true, then why is it did you say you were responsible?" Rufus questioned, making Harry look a bit sheepish.

"I don't know really," he confessed, looking at Dumbledore for a little help, who looked like he would rather say nothing.

"This is ridiculous, I'm going to get the Aurors," Rufus got up, but Dumbledore's voice stopped him.

"Allow me to explain to you why that would be the most terrible idea I've heard to date," Dumbledore said, stopping the minister for a moment and making him look at him with a raised eyebrow. This also got Harry's attention.

"Do explain," Rufus relented. Dumbledore sighed, it would be killing two birds with one stone in a sense.

"Have you never thought of why Tom would want to kill you as an infant?" Dumbledore turned to Harry when he asked this.

"I have, the best I could come up with was that he is a psychopath," Harry said, mention of the night ceasing the joy he felt of being out of Azkaban and of having magic; making him lean back down on his chair, perturbed. He was curious about what this had to do with the conversation.

"While that may be true, there was no reason for him to be so specific. Your parents took you into hiding because of a prophecy made by Sybil Trelawney. It referred to a child who would be able to vanquish him being born at the end of July, and at the time, it could be only you or Neville but it could not be both of you. The dark lord himself had to mark one of you as his equal and by making an attempt at your life that night, he made you the child of the prophecy," Dumbledore explained to the two-gapping people.

"W-What?" Harry was unsure of how to process it all. He was being hunted down by the dark lord since the fourth year for a reason he didn't know and know he was being told that he was born to fight and kill him, why hide it from him for all this time? He could have prepared... somehow, "I've been living in danger my whole life and you only tell me the reason for this now?"

"I wanted for you to live a normal life. You were never in any danger Harry, you were always being watched," Dumbledore answered and Harry felt a sense of anxiety rush through him.

"Then when were you going to tell me this? When I was six feet under?"

Dumbledore shook his head, "Of course not. I had planned to let you know upon your return form the Christmas holidays. Only then would we devise a plan on how to make it possible for you."

Harry sighed, he didn't feel angry, just betrayed. He believed Dumbledore was always truthful with him, but it seemed not. If he was honest with himself, having received this information. There wasn't time to fight amongst themselves, but he needed a moment. "Do you have my wand with you?"

Dumbledore pointed to a box on one of his shelves with an understanding look. Harry walked to it and upon opening the box, he exhaled and turned to the headmaster, box still in hand, "This isn't it."

"Yours was snapped by the ministry, I apologize for its appearance," Dumbledore said, making Harry turn back to the boney colored wand. It almost looked like Voldemort's, but it just lacked the small hook and it didn't look as rough carved as the dark lords. With a small intake of breath, he grabbed the wooden grip of the wand and heard the Minister gasp as he saw how it looked. Harry felt the familiar adrenaline sensation of the wand accepting him, but what happened after was unfamiliar to him.

Small sparks emitted from the tip of the wand and a gentle breeze made his hair and Robes sway, he gave out a light smile, remembering the reason. He had magic, or it at least he was starting to get more of it. He pocketed the wand and made for the exit.

"Where are you going, Harry?" Dumbledore's questioned.

"I have a girl to see and then, well, somewhere that's for me," Harry exited the room without any further explanation. As soon he had descended the statue and it blocked the stairway. He leaned against the wall next to it, using it as support as he brought himself down to the floor and cover his face with his hands. He was going to die. There wasn't a scenario where he could imagine himself living through this.

His head kept on repeating 'Condemned' and he didn't want to believe it, how could he? Even with his supposed growing core, how was he supposed to beat someone who's had years of experience and skill, someone who has easily killed even the best duelists, while the highest experience Harry had was killing a large snake, and even that was with a sword, just barely surviving it. Thinking about it now, he might have knowledge of different spells, but he hadn't even practiced a single one, maybe some of the light stunners but not the more advanced ones, and the lack of necessity made him forget some of them.

Harry let out a breath, it didn't matter. 'I have nothing to live for any-' he shook his head, stopping the thoughts. He had something to live for, someone he would have to live for. He might have no cared for anything before this year, but now he had someone he was going to have to protect. Or is going to have someone to protect. He let out a small inaudible scream into his hand.

Everything had to be so hard... He had the different type of reasonable doubts, but he was sure of something now. He had to make sure he survived everything and if he even dreamed of that, training was needed. A lot of it.

"Harry?" A voice made him raise his head slowly in surprise. No one had even tried to utter a word to him, until now that is. When the voices speaker had come into his vision, his jaw slackened, and his eyes widened to a small degree. Daphne stood there, with Blaise helping her walk. The first thing Harry noticed was that she looked pregnant... Very pregnant. Appearance wise she was glowing, but she did look strained and she practically emitted an aura of vulnerability, and it made some of the anger he held for her disappear, his inelegance started it all, although she took it to another level.

"Hey," he regarded, getting up and walking towards her, not taking a moment to glance at Blaise, who was still eyeing him. Once he stood in front of her, they stared at each other in the eyes and Harry found it surprising that she stood the same height as him, which meant she must have grown nearly three inches since he was gone. 'Is that natural?' he thought, but any further contemplation was stopped by her sliding her hand off Blaise's shoulder and putting her arms around his neck, hugging him as closely as she could without hurting herself or the baby.

"I missed you," She whispered and sounded sincere. He didn't return the hug for a moment, but he put his hands on her waist and returned it silently. He wanted to be angry, he really did, but she wasn't in the best state for him to call her out. Blaise stood there, feeling a bit awkward as he watched the two continue to embrace in the middle of the silent corridor.

She pulled away and looked at him with a tearful smile, he looked at her for a moment, feeling the tears on his forehead, and then gave her a smile in return. He wasn't cruel, he wasn't going to be angry at her and show it, whether she was sincere about this or not, it wasn't the right time now.

"Where were you going?" he asked her, only now sparring a glance at Blaise

"The hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey wants me to be there until I deliver. Astoria told me that she saw you and that you went in this direction. I knew there was one place you would go to around here, and I just had to see for myself if it was true," She answered honestly, surprise still present in her voice, but it held a tinge of worry.

"I'll take you there then," Harry said, and Blaise seemed like he choked on something behind her, "What's wrong with you?" he looked at the dark boy, who shook his head.

"Nothing. I'll see you two later," Blaise then speed walked down the corridor. Harry shrugged and turned back to the girl in front of him, who was still looking at him with a stupefied, yet quizzical expression. He held her arm and put it on his shoulder, putting he's arm under hers and over her shoulder and moved to the hospital wing, which was now on the second floor.

"How are you feeling?" he queried, not looking at her.

"Bloated, tired, my feet hurt, and I feel like killing you," She answered, making his eye widen.

"What? Why?"

"It's your fault I'm like this," she said honestly. Harry's mouth opened to give a retort, but he closed it again, rethinking and he repeated this before giving off a small laugh.

"I guess," he glared at a group of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, who stopped to gape at them, making them look away and continue walking. They spent the rest of the journey in silence, with Harry stopping a few times to let her take a break. When they were nearly at the hospital wing, she asked a question that caught him off guard.

"Are we okay?" she asked, making him stop and turn his head to her, "I mean, you've been in Azkaban for seven months, maybe you feel different," Harry said nothing for a moment, there was no doubt in his mind that they were not okay, at all.

"Look, Daphne, maybe if things were different and the relationship started off with both of us liking each other. We would have been," he replied, making her raise an eyebrow.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked, her voice only having curiosity. Harry didn't need to think to know that he wasn't going to tell her, he didn't trust her enough, not anymore.

"It's a lot of things really, having that kind of relationship would be difficult for me right now. Maybe after the war," he said earnestly, before deciding on a topic change, "Anything interesting happen while I was gone?"

His attempt at changing the subject did not go unnoticed and she felt that this was some sort of rejection, admittedly she found herself disappointed. I shouldn't care, she thought with a frown. She had planned on coming clean and telling him everything she had planned, hoping that they could start a relationship that wasn't built on lies for the betterment of their baby. Maybe even trying to like him.

"The war, of course. You should have seen the looks on their faces when they read the first article on the dark lord's return," She answered with a small smirk, "Most of the students are sticking to being quiet and not voicing their opinions on the war, with exceptions being those who's parent Dumbledore gave refugee too, making them practically join the light."

"Which side is winning?" he questioned.

"I thought Dumbledore would have told you of this?" She frowned.

"Our conversation was interrupted. So, who seems to be winning?" Harry shrugged, making her stare at him momentarily before answering.

"The Dark Lord."

"Figures" Harry muttered, stopping when they finally reached the door of the hospital wing.

Daphne looked at him confused, having heard what he said. "What do you mean by that?"

"No one can beat him, from what I've heard about the last war when he was in his prime, not even Dumbledore would have faced him alone. The light losing isn't a surprise," He said, making Daphne look to the floor silently.

"Do you think he's going to come here?" She whispered, making him cock his head. He was certain that everyone knew that Hogwarts was at the top of Voldemort's hitlist, come to think of it, Hogwarts was both the worst and safest place to be right now.

"Oh..." Harry wasn't sure what to say to somehow reassure her. She was talking about Voldemort coming after her, or more specifically, the baby. The Dark Lord was bound to find out sooner rather than later. On top of that, her own house also had a sort of hatred for him, she was at a higher risk than him. At least, it seemed that way. While still highly displeased with her, she is to be the mother of his child and he had to make sure she was alive, for the sake of their child.

"I don't have a doubt that he will Daphne," he admitted, making her look up at him with wide eyes but he could tell she suspected an answer of that sort. "I also have no doubt in my mind that he won't lay a finger on you," he continued. She gave him a reluctant smile, one he did not return and before she could respond, a protesting Blaise Zabini was pulled around the corridor while getting an earful from his mother.

* * *

 _A/N:_

 _I know its short, but I had to write this in one day before I wasn't going to be able to get acces to my PC for a few weeks. I hoped you liked it anyway._

B/N:

As always, it's been an honor to beta for Baphiwens. Glad to see him back and stronger than ever.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. See ya soon.


	12. AN

A/N: I thought I'd put something like this up, again. So I got my laptop back last week, my house was raided before - supposed illegal possession of extensive firearms and drugs. This year has been a shit show for me, and those charges weren't even the worst of it. So yeah, I got my laptop, BOOM, exams again.

I tried writing in the little free time I had, but it feels like a choir - possibly because I'm tired half the time. So I'm sorry for not posting anything in awhile, a _gain._ No, I'm not abandoning this. I'll update after my June examinations, ending: 21 June.

Sorry, KevinBack518.

And I'd like to thank my beta, ShinyKamon, for being there for me (Even if you didn't know about this buddy, lol).

I apologize again.

Have a good day.


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